第七回
第七回 送宫花贾琏戏熙凤 宴宁府宝玉会秦钟
话说周瑞家的送了刘姥姥去后，便上来回王夫人话。谁知王夫人不在上房，问丫鬟们时，方知往薛姨妈那边闲话去了。周瑞家的听说，便转出东角门至东院，往梨香院来。刚至院门前，只见王夫人的丫鬟金钏儿，和一个才留了头[2]的小女孩儿站在台阶坡上顽。见周瑞家的来了，便知有话回，因向内努嘴儿。
周瑞家的轻轻掀帘进去，只见王夫人和薛姨妈长篇大套的说些家务人情等语。周瑞家的不敢惊动，遂进里间来。只见薛宝钗穿着家常衣服，头上只散挽着儿[3]，坐在炕里边，伏在小炕桌上同丫鬟莺儿正描花样子呢。见他进来，宝钗才放下笔，转过身来，满面堆笑让：“周姐姐坐。”周瑞家的也忙陪笑问“姑娘好？”一面炕沿上坐了，因说：“这有两三天也没见姑娘到那边逛逛去，只怕是你宝兄弟冲撞了你不成？”宝钗笑道：“那里的话。只因我那种病又发了，所以这两天没出屋子。”周瑞家的道：“正是呢，姑娘到底有什么病根儿，也该趁早儿请个大夫来，好生开个方子，认真吃几剂药，一势儿除了根才是。小小的年纪倒作下个病根儿，也不是顽的。”宝钗听了便笑道：“再不要提吃药。为这病请大夫吃药，也不知白花了多少银子钱呢。凭你什么名医仙药，从不见一点儿效。后来还亏了一个秃头和尚，说专治无名之症，因请他看了。他说我这是从胎里带来的一股热毒，幸而先天壮，还不相干；若吃寻常药，是不中用的。他就说了一个海上方[4]，又给了一包药末子作引子[5]，异香异气的，不知是那里弄了来的。他说发了时吃一丸就好。倒也奇怪，吃他的药倒效验些。”
周瑞家的因问：“不知是个什么海上方儿？姑娘说了，我们也记着，说与人知道，倘遇见这样病，也是行好的事。”宝钗见问，乃笑道：“不用这方儿还好，若用了这方儿〔二〕，真真把人琐碎死。东西药料一概都有限，只难得‘可巧’二字：要春天开的白牡丹花蕊十二两，夏天开的白荷花蕊十二两，秋天的白芙蓉蕊十二两，冬天的白梅花蕊十二两。将这四样花蕊，于次年春分这日晒干，和在药末子一处，一齐研好。又要雨水这日的雨水十二钱〔三〕，……”周瑞家的忙道：“嗳哟！这么说来，这就得三年的工夫。倘或雨水这日竟不下雨，这却怎处呢？”宝钗笑道：“所以说那里有这样可巧的雨，便没雨也只好再等罢了。还要白露这日的露水十二钱，霜降这日的霜十二钱，小雪这日的雪十二钱。把这四样水调匀，和了药，再加十二钱蜂蜜，十二钱白糖，丸了龙眼大的丸子，盛在旧磁坛内，埋在花根底下。若发了病时，拿出来吃一丸，用十二分黄柏[8]煎汤送下。”
周瑞家的听了笑道：“阿弥陀佛，真巧死人的事儿！等十年未必都这样巧的呢。”宝钗道：“竟好，自他说了去后，一二年间可巧都得了，好容易配成一料。如今从南带至北，现在就埋在梨花树底下呢。”周瑞家的又问道：“这药可有名字没有呢？”宝钗道：“有。这也是那癞头和尚说下的，叫作‘冷香丸’。”周瑞家的听了点头儿，因又说：“这病发了时到底觉怎么着？”宝钗道：“也不觉甚怎么着，只不过喘嗽些，吃一丸下去也就好些了。”
周瑞家的还欲说话时，忽听王夫人问：“谁在房里呢？”周瑞家的忙出去答应了，趁便回了刘姥姥之事。略待半刻，见王夫人无语，方欲退出，薛姨妈忽又笑道：“你且站住。我有一宗东西，你带了去罢。”说着便叫香菱。只听帘栊响处，方才和金钏顽的那个小丫头进来了，问：“奶奶叫我作什么？”薛姨妈道：“把匣子里的花儿拿来。”香菱答应了，向那边捧了个小锦匣来。薛姨妈道：“这是宫里头的新鲜样法，拿纱堆的花儿十二支。昨儿我想起来，白放着可惜了儿的，何不给他们姊妹们戴去。昨儿要送去，偏又忘了。你今儿来的巧，就带了去罢。你家的三位姑娘，每人一对，剩下的六枝，送林姑娘两枝，那四枝给了凤哥罢。”王夫人道：“留着给宝丫头戴罢，又想着他们作什么。”薛姨妈道：“姨娘不知道，宝丫头古怪着呢，他从来不爱这些花儿粉儿的。”
说着，周瑞家的拿了匣子，走出房门，见金钏仍在那里晒日阳儿。周瑞家的因问他道：“那香菱小丫头子，可就是常说临上京时买的、为他打人命官司的那个小丫头子么？”金钏道：“可不就是他〔四〕。”正说着，只见香菱笑嘻嘻的走来。周瑞家的便拉了他的手，细细的看了一会，因向金钏儿笑道：“倒好个模样儿，竟有些像咱们东府里蓉大奶奶的品格儿。”金钏儿笑道：“我也是这们说呢。”周瑞家的又问香菱：“你几岁投身到这里？”又问：“你父母今在何处？今年十几岁了？本处是那里人？”香菱听问，都摇头说：“不记得了。”周瑞家的和金钏儿听了，倒反为叹息伤感一回。
一时间周瑞家的携花至王夫人正房后头来。原来近日贾母说孙女儿们太多了，一处挤着倒不方便，只留宝玉黛玉二人这边解闷，却将迎、探、惜三人移到王夫人这边房后三间小抱厦内居住，令李纨陪伴照管。如今周瑞家的故顺路先往这里来，只见几个小丫头子都在抱厦内听呼唤呢。迎春的丫鬟司棋与探春的丫鬟待书〔五〕二人正掀帘子出来，手里都捧着茶钟，周瑞家的便知他们姊妹在一处坐着呢，遂进入内房，只见迎春、探春二人正在窗下围棋。周瑞家的将花送上，说明缘故。二人忙住了棋，都欠身道谢，命丫鬟们收了。
周瑞家的答应了，因说：“四姑娘不在房里，只怕在老太太那边呢。”丫鬟们道：“那屋里不是四姑娘？”周瑞家的听了，便往这边屋里来。只见惜春正同水月庵的小姑子智能儿一处顽耍呢，见周瑞家的进来，惜春便问他何事。周瑞家的便将花匣打开，说明原故。惜春笑道：“我这里正和智能儿说，我明儿也剃了头同他作姑子去呢，可巧又送了花儿来；若剃了头，可把这花儿戴在那里呢？”说着，大家取笑一回，惜春命丫鬟入画来收了〔六〕。
周瑞家的因问智能儿：“你是什么时候来的？你师父那秃歪剌〔七〕[13]往那里去了？”智能儿道：“我们一早就来了。我师父见了太太，就往于老爷府内去了，叫我在这里等他呢。”周瑞家的又道：“十五的月例香供银子可曾得了没有？”智能儿摇头儿说：“我不知道。”惜春听了，便问周瑞家的：“如今各庙月例银子是谁管着？”周瑞家的道：“是余信〔八〕管着。”惜春听了笑道：“这就是了。他师父一来，余信家的就赶上来，和他师父咕唧了半日，想是就为这事了。”
那周瑞家的又和智能儿劳叨了一会，便往凤姐儿处来。穿夹道从李纨后窗下过，隔着玻璃窗户，见李纨在炕上歪着睡觉呢，遂越过西花墙，出西角门进入凤姐院中。走至堂屋，只见小丫头丰儿坐在凤姐房门槛上，见周瑞家的来了，连忙摆手儿叫他往东屋里去。周瑞家的会意，忙蹑手蹑足往东边房里来，只见奶子正拍着大姐儿睡觉呢。周瑞家的悄问奶子道：“姐儿睡中觉呢？也该请醒了。”奶子摇头儿。正说着，只听那边一阵笑声，却有贾琏的声音。接着房门响处，平儿拿着大铜盆出来，叫丰儿舀水进去。平儿便到这边来，一见了周瑞家的便问：“你老人家又跑了来作什么？”周瑞家的忙起身，拿匣子与他，说送花儿一事。平儿听了，便打开匣子，拿了四枝，转身去了。半刻工夫，手里拿出两枝来，先叫彩明吩咐道：“送到那边府里给小蓉大奶奶戴去。”次后方命周瑞家的回去道谢。
周瑞家的这才往贾母这边来。穿过了穿堂，抬头忽见他女儿打扮着才从他婆家来。周瑞家的忙问：“你这会跑来作什么？”他女儿笑道：“妈一向身上好？我在家里等了这半日，妈竟不出去，什么事情这样忙的不回家〔九〕？我等烦了，自己先到了老太太跟前请了安了，这会子请太太的安去。妈还有什么不了的差事，手里是什么东西？”周瑞家的笑道：“嗳！今儿偏偏的来了个刘姥姥，我自己多事，为他跑了半日；这会子又被姨太太看见了，送这几枝花儿与姑娘奶奶们。这会子还没送清楚呢。你这会子跑了来，一定有什么事。”他女儿笑道：“你老人家倒会猜。实对你老人家说，你女婿前儿因多吃了两杯酒，和人分争，不知怎的被人放了一把邪火[16]，说他来历不明，告到衙门里，要递解[17]还乡。所以我来和你老人家商议商议，这个情分，求那一个可了事呢？”周瑞家的听了道：“我就知道呢。这有什么大不了的事！你且家去等我，我给林姑娘送了花儿去就回家去。此时太太二奶奶都不得闲儿，你回去等我。这有什么，忙的如此。”女儿听说，便回去了，又说：“妈，好歹快来。”周瑞家的道：“是了。小人儿家没经过什么事，就急得你这样了。”说着，便到黛玉房中去了。
谁知此时黛玉不在自己房中，却在宝玉房中大家解九连环[18]玩呢。周瑞家的进来笑道：“林姑娘，姨太太着我送花儿与姑娘戴来了。”宝玉听说，便先问：“什么花儿？拿来给我。”一面早伸手接过来了。开匣看时，原来是宫制堆纱新巧的假花儿。黛玉只就宝玉手中看了一看，便问道：“还是单送我一人的，还是别的姑娘们都有呢？”周瑞家的道：“各位都有了，这两枝是姑娘的了。”黛玉冷笑道：“我就知道，别人不挑剩下的也不给我。”周瑞家的听了，一声儿不言语。宝玉便问道：“周姐姐，你作什么到那边去了？”周瑞家的因说：“太太在那里，因回话去了，姨太太就顺便叫我带来了。”宝玉道：“宝姐姐在家作什么呢？怎么这几日也不过这边来？”周瑞家的道：“身上不大好呢。”宝玉听了，便和丫头说：“谁去瞧瞧？只说我与林姑娘打发了来请姨太太姐姐安，问姐姐是什么病，现吃什么药。论理我该亲自来的，就说才从学里来，也着了些凉，异日再亲自来看罢。”说着，茜雪〔一○〕便答应去了。周瑞家的自去，无话。
原来这周瑞的女婿，便是雨村的好友冷子兴，近因卖古董和人打官司，故教女人来讨情分。周瑞家的仗着主子的势利，把这些事也不放在心上，晚间只求求凤姐儿便完了。
至掌灯时分，凤姐已卸了妆，来见王夫人回话：“今儿甄家送了来的东西，我已收了。咱们送他的，趁着他家有年下进鲜[20]的船回去，一并都交给他们带了去罢？”王夫人点头。凤姐又道：“临安伯老太太生日的礼已经打点了，派谁送去呢？”王夫人道：“你瞧谁闲着，就叫他们去四个女人就是了，又来当什么正经事问我。”凤姐又笑道：“今日珍大嫂子来，请我明日过去逛逛，明日倒没有什么事情。”王夫人道：“有事没事都害不着什么。每常他来请，有我们，你自然不便意[21]；他既不请我们，单请你，可知是他诚心叫你散淡散淡，别辜负了他的心，便有事也该过去才是。”凤姐答应了。当下李纨、迎、探等姐妹们亦来定省毕，各自归房无话。
次日凤姐梳洗了，先回王夫人毕，方来辞贾母。宝玉听了，也要跟了逛去。凤姐只得答应，立等着换了衣服，姐儿两个坐了车，一时进入宁府。早有贾珍之妻尤氏与贾蓉之妻秦氏婆媳两个，引了多少姬妾丫鬟媳妇等接出仪门。那尤氏一见了凤姐，必先笑嘲一阵，一手携了宝玉同入上房来归坐。秦氏献茶毕，凤姐因说：“你们请我来作什么？有什么好东西孝敬我，就快献上来，我还有事呢。”尤氏秦氏未及答话，地下几个姬妾先就笑说：“二奶奶今儿不来就罢，既来了就依不得二奶奶了。”正说着，只见贾蓉进来请安。宝玉因问：“大哥哥今日不在家么？”尤氏道：“出城与老爷请安去了。可是，你怪闷的，坐在这里作什么？何不也去逛逛。”
秦氏笑道：“今儿巧，上回宝叔立刻要见的我那兄弟，他今儿也在这里，想在书房里呢，宝叔何不去瞧一瞧？”宝玉听了，即便下炕要走。尤氏凤姐都忙说：“好生着，忙什么？”一面便吩咐好生小心跟着，别委曲着他，倒比不得跟了老太太过来就罢了。凤姐说道：“既这么着，何不请进这秦小爷来，我也瞧一瞧。难道我见不得他不成？”尤氏笑道：“罢，罢！可以不必见，他比不得咱们家的孩子们，胡打海摔的惯了。人家的孩子都是斯斯文文的惯了，乍见了你这破落户，还被人笑话死了呢。”凤姐笑道：“普天下的人，我不笑话就罢了。竟叫这小孩子笑话我不成？”贾蓉笑道：“不是这话，他生的腼腆，没见过大阵仗儿，婶子见了，没的生气。”凤姐道：“凭他什么样儿的，我也要见一见！别放你娘的屁了。再不带我看看，给你一顿好嘴巴。”贾蓉笑嘻嘻的说：“我不敢扭着，就带他来。”
说着，果然出去带进一个小后生来，较宝玉略瘦些，眉清目秀，粉面朱唇，身材俊俏，举止风流，似在宝玉之上，只是怯怯羞羞，有女儿之态，腼腆含糊，慢向凤姐作揖问好。凤姐喜的先推宝玉，笑道：“比下去了！”便探身一把携了这孩子的手，就命他身傍坐了，慢慢的问他：几岁了，读什么书，弟兄几个，学名唤什么。秦钟一一答应了。早有凤姐的丫鬟媳妇们见凤姐初会秦钟，并未备得表礼[22]来，遂忙过那边去告诉平儿。平儿知道凤姐与秦氏厚密，虽是小后生家，亦不可太俭，遂自作主意，拿了一匹尺头[23]、两个“状元及第”的小金锞子[24]，交付与来人送过去。凤姐犹笑说太简薄等语。秦氏等谢毕。一时吃过饭，尤氏、凤姐、秦氏等抹骨牌[25]，不在话下。
那宝玉自见了秦钟的人品出众，心中似有所失，痴了半日，自己心中又起了呆意，乃自思道：“天下竟有这等人物！如今看来，我竟成了泥猪癞狗了。可恨我为什么生在这侯门公府之家，若也生在寒门薄宦之家，早得与他交结，也不枉生了一世。我虽如此比他尊贵，可知锦绣纱罗，也不过裹了我这根死木头；美酒羊羔，也不过填了我这粪窟泥沟。‘富贵’二字，不料遭我荼毒了！”秦钟自见了宝玉形容出众，举止不凡，更兼金冠绣服，骄婢侈童，心中亦自思道：“果然这宝玉怨不得人溺爱他。可恨我偏生于清寒之家，不能与他耳鬓交接，可知‘贫窭’[26]二字限人，亦世间之大不快事。”二人一样的胡思乱想。忽然宝玉问他读什么书。秦钟见问，因而答以实话。二人你言我语，十来句后，越觉亲密起来。
一时摆上茶果，宝玉便说：“我两个又不吃酒，把果子摆在里间小炕上，我们那里坐去，省得闹你们。”于是二人进里间来吃茶。秦氏一面张罗与凤姐摆酒果，一面忙进来嘱宝玉道：“宝叔，你侄儿倘或言语不防头[27]，你千万看着我，不要理他。他虽腼腆，却性子左强[28]，不大随和此是有的。”宝玉笑道：“你去罢，我知道了。”秦氏又嘱了他兄弟一回，方去陪凤姐。
一时凤姐尤氏又打发人来问宝玉：“要吃什么，外面有，只管要去。”宝玉只答应着，也无心在饮食上，只问秦钟近日家务等事。秦钟因说：“业师[29]于去年病故，家父又年纪老迈，残疾在身，公务繁冗，因此尚未议及再延师一事，目下不过在家温习旧课而已。再读书一事，必须有一二知己为伴，时常大家讨论，才能进益。”宝玉不待说完，便答道：“正是呢，我们却有个家塾，合族中有不能延师的，便可入塾读书，子弟们中亦有亲戚在内可以附读。我因业师上年回家去了，也现荒废着呢。家父之意，亦欲暂送我去温习旧书，待明年业师上来，再各自在家里读。家祖母因说：一则家学里之子弟太多，生恐大家淘气，反不好；二则也因我病了几天，遂暂且耽搁着。如此说来，尊翁如今也为此事悬心。今日回去，何不禀明，就往我们敝塾中来，我亦相伴，彼此有益，岂不是好事？”秦钟笑道：“家父前日在家提起延师一事，也曾提起这里的义学[30]倒好，原要来和这里的亲翁商议引荐。因这里又事忙，不便为这点小事来聒絮的。宝叔果然度小侄或可磨墨涤砚，何不速速的作成，又彼此不致荒废，又可以常相谈聚，又可以慰父母之心，又可以得朋友之乐，岂不是美事？”宝玉道：“放心，放心。咱们回来告诉你姐夫姐姐和琏二嫂子。你今日回家就禀明令尊，我回去再禀明祖母，再无不速成之理。”二人计议已定。那天气已是掌灯时候，出来又看他们顽了一回牌。算帐时，却又是秦氏尤氏二人输了戏酒的东道，言定后日吃这东道。一面就叫送饭。
吃毕晚饭，因天黑了，尤氏说：“先派两个小子送了这秦相公家去。”媳妇们传出去半日，秦钟告辞起身。尤氏问：“派了谁送去？”媳妇们回说：“外头派了焦大，谁知焦大醉了，又骂呢。”尤氏秦氏都说道：“偏又派他作什么！放着这些小子们，那一个派不得？偏要惹他去。”凤姐道：“我成日家说你太软弱了，纵的家里人这样还了得了。”尤氏叹道：“你难道不知这焦大的？连老爷都不理他的，你珍大哥哥也不理他。只因他从小儿跟着太爷们出过三四回兵，从死人堆里把太爷背了出来，得了命；自己挨着饿，却偷了东西来给主子吃；两日没得水，得了半碗水给主子喝，他自己喝马溺。不过仗着这些功劳情分，有祖宗时都另眼相待，如今谁肯难为他去。他自己又老了，又不顾体面，一味吃酒，吃醉了，无人不骂。我常说给管事的，不要派他差事，全当一个死的就完了。今儿又派了他。”凤姐道：“我何曾不知这焦大。倒是你们没主意，有这样的，何不打发他远远的庄子上去就完了。”说着，因问：“我们的车可齐备了？”地下众人都应道：“伺候齐了。”
凤姐起身告辞，和宝玉携手同行。尤氏等送至大厅，只见灯烛辉煌，众小厮都在丹墀[31]侍立。那焦大又恃贾珍不在家，即在家亦不好怎样他，更可以任意洒落洒落[32]。因趁着酒兴，先骂大总管赖二，说他不公道，欺软怕硬，“有了好差事就派别人，像这等黑更半夜送人的事，就派我。没良心的王八羔子！瞎充管家！你也不想想，焦大太爷跷跷脚，比你的头还高呢。二十年头里的焦大太爷眼里有谁？别说你们这一起杂种王八羔子们！”
正骂的兴头上，贾蓉送凤姐的车出去，众人喝他不听，贾蓉忍不得，便骂了他两句，使人捆起来，“等明日酒醒了，问他还寻死不寻死了！”那焦大那里把贾蓉放在眼里，反大叫起来，赶着贾蓉叫：“蓉哥儿，你别在焦大跟前使主子性儿。别说你这样儿的，就是你爹、你爷爷，也不敢和焦大挺腰子[33]！不是焦大一个人，你们就做官儿享荣华受富贵？你祖宗九死一生挣下这家业，到如今了，不报我的恩，反和我充起主子来了。不和我说别的还可，若再说别的，咱们红刀子进去白刀子出来〔一一〕！”凤姐在车上说与贾蓉道：“以后还不早打发了这个没王法的东西！留在这里岂不是祸害？倘或亲友知道了，岂不笑话咱们，这样的人家连个王法规矩都没有。”贾蓉答应“是”。
众小厮见他太撒野了，只得上来几个，揪翻捆倒，拖往马圈里去。焦大越发连贾珍都说出来，乱嚷乱叫说：“我要往祠堂里哭太爷去。那里承望到如今生下这些畜牲来！每日家偷狗戏鸡，爬灰[35]的爬灰，养小叔子的养小叔子，我什么不知道？咱们‘胳膊折了往袖子里藏’！”众小厮听他说出这些没天日的话来，唬的魂飞魄散，也不顾别的了，便把他捆起来，用土和马粪满满的填了他一嘴。
凤姐和贾蓉等也遥遥的闻得，便都装作没听见。宝玉在车上见这般醉闹，倒也有趣，因问凤姐道：“姐姐，你听他说‘爬灰的爬灰’，什么是‘爬灰’？”凤姐听了，连忙立眉嗔目断喝道：“少胡说！那是醉汉嘴里混唚[36]，你是什么样的人，不说没听见，还倒细问！等我回去回了太太，仔细捶你不捶你！”唬的宝玉忙央告道：“好姐姐，我再不敢了。”凤姐道：“这才是呢。等到了家，咱们回了老太太，打发你同你秦家侄儿学里念书去要紧。”说着，却自回往荣府而来。正是：
不因俊俏难为友，正为风流始读书。〔一二〕
〔一〕 此回甲戌本有回前诗：“题曰：十二花容色最新，不知谁是惜花人。相逢若问名何氏，家住江南姓本秦。”蒙府、戚序本亦有此诗，个别字略异。
[2] 留头——又叫“留满头”。旧时女子幼年剃发，随着年事增长，先留顶心头发，再留全发，叫做“留头”。
[3] （zuǎn钻上声）儿——也写作“纂儿”。妇女的发髻。
[4] 海上方——旧时传说，东海（一说在渤海）之中的蓬莱、方丈、瀛洲三神山上，有不死之药。后人遂称民间验方、秘方为“海上方”，意谓从东海神仙处求得的灵验药方。
[5] 引子——即“药引”，指处方中能引药力达到病变部位的药物，是中医方剂中“君、臣、佐、使”四个部分的“使”的俗称，也叫“引经报使”或“引经药”。
〔二〕 “方儿”后原有“的病症”三字，从甲戌、蒙府、戚序、甲辰、舒序、俄藏、卞藏本删。
〔三〕 “十二钱”，原作“十二两”，俄藏作“可不就是”。从各本改。
[8] 黄柏——中药名，性寒味苦，清热解毒。
〔四〕 “可不就是他”，原无“不”字，俄藏本作“可不就是”。从各本补。
〔五〕 “待书”，底本点改为“侍书”，蒙府、甲辰、舒序本作“侍书”，己卯、梦稿、戚序、俄藏本作“待书”，卞藏本作“俦书”。取原文。
〔六〕 “命丫鬟入画来收了”，原作“丫鬟放在匣子里”，卞藏本作“命入画来收了花儿”。从甲戌、甲辰、舒序、俄藏本改。
〔七〕 “秃歪剌”，原作“秃歪到”，俄藏、卞藏本作“秃驴”。从甲戌、甲辰本改。
[13] 秃歪剌——骂尼姑的话。秃：指光头。歪剌：也作歪辣，又叫歪剌骨，歪剌货，意谓不正当的女人。
〔八〕 “余信”，原作“蔡信”，从甲戌、戚序、甲辰、舒序、俄藏、卞藏本改。下文“余信家的”同。
〔九〕 “这样忙的不回家”，原作“这样的不回家的忙”，点改成“这样忙的不回家”，俄藏、卞藏本作“忙的这样”。各本均同点改文字，从。
[16] 放了一把邪火——即造谣中伤。
[17] 递解——旧时把解往别处的犯人由所经各地派人一站转一站地押送叫“递解”。
[18] 九连环——一种智力玩具，用金属丝制成一狭长的方圈，上套九个圆环，可解下套上，手续极繁，玩时以能全部解下圆环者为胜。
〔一○〕 “茜雪”，底本、卞藏本作“茜云”，从甲戌、蒙府、戚序、甲辰、舒序、俄藏本改。
[20] 进鲜——封建时代官僚贵族向皇帝进献水果鱼虾等时鲜物品。
[21] 便意——方便。
[22] 表礼——旧日赠送或赏赐的礼物。
[23] 尺头——衣料。
[24] “状元及第”的小金锞子——小金锞子：金子铸成的小锭。状元及第：这里指金锭上的一种“吉祥图案”，作考中的状元戴金花骑马的形状（也有只用“状元及第”四字的）。此外的“吉祥图案”还有“岁岁平安”、“事事如意”、“云龙捧寿”、“玉堂富贵”等等。见本书后文。
[25] 抹骨牌——即打骨牌。骨牌：又名“牙牌”或“牌九”。一种用兽骨或竹、木、象牙等制的娱乐品，也用作赌具。明代张自烈撰《正字通》说：“牙牌，今戏具。俗传宋宣和二年臣某疏请设，……高宗时诏如式颁行天下，今谓之骨牌。”
[26] 贫窭（jù据）——贫寒。《诗·邶风·北门》：“终窭且贫，莫知我艰。”
[27] 不防头——冒失，不留神、不经意。
[28] 左强（jiàn绛）——执拗倔强。“强”即“犟”。
[29] 业师——旧时称给本人授业的老师。
[30] 义学——也叫“义塾”，一种免费学校。有宗族办的，也有私人集资或用地方公费办的。一般招收主办者的族人、亲友或乡里子弟。
[31] 丹墀（chí迟）——丹：红色。墀：台阶；也称阶面。古代宫殿台阶上的地面涂成红色，叫“丹墀”。《汉官仪》：“以丹漆阶上地曰丹墀。”这里泛指台阶。
[32] 洒落洒落——数说人家的不是。
[33] 挺腰子——形容拿架子、耍威风。
〔一一〕 “红刀子进去白刀子出来”，写醉人颠倒口吻。后点改为“白刀子进去红刀子出来”，甲戌、蒙府、戚序、甲辰、舒序、俄藏、卞藏本均同点改文字，并误。己卯、梦稿本同底本原文，是。
[35] 爬灰——公公与儿媳妇私通。
[36] 混唚（qìn沁）——又作“混吣”。骂人的话。牲畜呕吐叫“唚”。混唚，把别人说话比作牲畜呕吐，较骂人“胡说”更甚。
〔一二〕 回末联对，底本另作贴条处理。除舒序本误抄外，卞藏本“始读书”作“愿读书”。其馀各本均为回末联对，从。俄藏本回末误抄“得意浓时易按济，受恩深处胜亲朋”。
CHAPTER 7. Zhou Rui’s wife delivers palace flowers and finds Jia Lian pursuing night sports by day Jia Bao-yu visits the Ning-guo mansion and has an agreeable colloquy with Qin-shi’s brother
When Zhou Rui’s wife had finished seeing off Grannie Liu, she went to Lady Wang’s place to report. Lady Wang, however, was not in her apartment. The maids said that she had gone off to visit Aunt Xue. Zhou Rui’s wife accordingly went out by the gate in the east corner of the compound, crossed the eastern courtyard, and made her way to Pear Tree Court. As she reached the gate of the Court, she came upon Lady Wang’s maid, Golden, playing on the front steps with a young girl. Golden realized that Zhou Rui’s wife must have come with a message for Lady Wang and indicated that her mistress was inside by turning her chin towards the house and shooting out her lips.
Zhou Rui’s wife gently raised a side of the portière and entered. She found the two sisters in the midst of a seemingly interminable discussion of some domestic odyssey. Not daring to interrupt it, she passed on into the inner room, where Xue Bao-chai, dressed in workaday clothes, her hair unadorned and twisted in a knot on top of her head, sat with her maid Oriole over a little table towards the back of the kang, tracing a pattern for her embroidery. Seeing Zhou Rui’s wife enter, she laid down her tracing brush, turned towards her with a smile, and invited her to sit with them.
‘How are you, Miss?’ asked Zhou Rui’s wife, returning her smile and sitting down on the edge of the kang. ‘I haven’t seen you over our side these last two or three days. Has Master Bao been upsetting you?’
‘Good gracious, no!’ said Bao-chai with a laugh. ‘I’ve had an attack of my old sickness again and thought I had better rest quietly at home for a day or two. That’s the only reason.’
‘Very sensible!’ said Zhou Rui’s wife. ‘But what is this sickness of yours, Miss? Oughtn’t you to call in a doctor and get it properly seen to? It’s no joke when a young person of your age lets an illness get its grip on them.’
‘Oh, don’t talk about my illness!’ said Bao-chai. ‘I don’t know how many doctors we must have consulted about it, and how many medicines I must have swallowed, or how much money we must have spent on it – all without any benefit whatsoever. In the end we were fortunate enough to hear of a monk who specialized in treating illnesses that other people couldn’t diagnose and asked him to have a look at me. He said that I had a congenital tendency to overheatedness, but that fortunately, as my constitution was a strong one, it wasn’t serious. He said the usual medicines wouldn’t do it any good, and he gave us a prescription supposed to have been handed down from the Immortals of the Islands. He also gave us a packet of powder with a very unusual fragrance which he said was to be used as the base. He said that if each time I had a turn I took just one of the pills made up from this prescription, the sickness would go away. And the remarkable thing is that they really have proved quite effective.’
‘What was this prescription, Miss? If you will tell me, I shall try to remember it so that I can pass it on to others. If I ever met anyone else who had the same sort of illness, I could do them a charity, couldn’t I?’
‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ said Bao-chai. ‘It’s such a finicky prescription, it would drive anyone mad trying to make it up. It’s not so much the materials. There is, after all, a limit to the number of drugs from one part of the world or another that are available. It’s the timing involved that is so difficult.
‘You have to take twelve ounces of stamens of the spring-flowering white tree-peony, twelve ounces of stamens of the summer-flowering white water-lily, twelve ounces of stamens of the autumn-flowering white lotus, and twelve ounces of stamens of the winter-flowering white plum and dry them all in the sun on the day of the spring equinox of the year immediately following the year you picked them in. Then you have to mix them with the powder I told you about and pound them all up together in a mortar. Then you must take twelve drams of rain water that fell on the Rain Days in the second month…’
Zhou Rui’s wife laughed.
‘Why, that’s already three years it would take! And suppose it didn’t rain that year on the Rain Days?’
‘Exactly,’ said Bao-chai. ‘Rain is seldom so obliging. You would just have to wait till the next year. Then you have to collect twelve drams of dew on the day White Dew in the ninth month, twelve drams of frost at Frost Fall in the tenth, and twelve drams of snow at Lesser Snow in the last month of the year, stir these four kinds of water into the mixture, make it up into pills about the size of a longan, and store the pills in an old porcelain jar. The jar is supposed to be buried in a flower bed and only dug up when you have an attack of the illness. Then one of the pills is taken out and swallowed in hot water into which one and a quarter drams of tincture of phellodendron has been stirred.’
‘God bless my soul!’ Zhou Rui’s wife exclaimed. ‘You would certainly need some patience! Why, you might wait ten years before getting all those things at the proper times!’
‘Well,’ said Bao-chai, ‘we were lucky. Within only a year or two of the monk’s visit we had managed to get all the ingredients together and were able to make up the pills without trouble. We brought them with us when we came to live here and have buried them under one of the pear-trees in the garden.’
‘Has this medicine got a name?’ Zhou Rui’s wife asked.
‘Yes,’ said Bao-chai. ‘The monk said the pills are called “Cold Fragrance Pills”.’
Zhou Rui’s wife nodded appreciatively.
‘Tell me, Miss, what exactly is this illness of yours?’
‘It doesn’t really bother me very much. It makes me cough and wheeze a bit. But as soon as I have taken one of the pills, it goes away.’
Zhou Rui’s wife was about to ask something else when they were interrupted by a call from Lady Wang:
‘Who have you got in there?’
She hurried back into the outer room to make her report on Grannie Liu. Having finished it, she waited for some comment from Lady Wang, but finding that none was forthcoming, was on the point of withdrawing when Aunt Xue smilingly enjoined her to stay.
‘Just a moment! There is something I should like you to take for me.’
She called to someone outside.
‘Caltrop!’
The rings of the portière rattled and the young girl whom Zhou Rui’s wife had seen a few minutes before playing on the steps with Golden came into the room.
‘You called, Madam?’
‘Bring me that box with the flowers in!’
Caltrop went into a side room and returned with a small embroidered box.
‘There are twelve artificial flowers in here,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘They were made in the Imperial Palace, all in the latest fashion. I suddenly thought to myself yesterday what a pity it was to leave them lying around here doing nothing, and how much nicer it would be to give them to the girls to wear. I meant to send them round yesterday but forgot. It’s lucky that you came here today, because you will be able to take them for me. There are two each for each of the Jia girls. That leaves six. Then two for Miss Lin, and the remaining four for Mrs Lian.’
‘Keep them for Bao-chai to wear,’ said Lady Wang. ‘What do you want to go bothering about our girls for?’
‘You don’t know our Bao-chai. She is funny about these things. She has never liked ornaments or make-up or anything of that sort.’
Zhou Rui’s wife took up the box and went out into the courtyard, where she came once more upon Golden, sunning herself on the steps.
‘Tell me,’ she asked her, ‘is that little Caltrop the one they are always talking about who was bought just before they came to the capital? The one they had the murder trial about?’
‘That’s her,’ said Golden.
At that moment Caltrop herself came skipping up with a sunny smile on her face, and Zhou Rui’s wife took her by the hand and studied her curiously. Then she turned to Golden again.
‘You know, there’s something about this child’s face that reminds me of Master Rong’s wife over at the Ning mansion.’
‘That’s just what I’ve said,’ Golden agreed.
Zhou Rui’s wife asked Caltrop how old she was when she became a slave. Then she asked her where her parents were, what her age was, and what part of the country she came from. But to all of these questions Caltrop only shook her head and said that she didn’t remember.
Zhou Rui’s wife and Golden exchanged glances and sighed sympathetically.
Bearing her box of flowers, Zhou Rui’s wife presently came to the part of the house behind Lady Wang’s quarters. Grandmother Jia had recently decided that her granddaughters were becoming too numerous and declared that she would retain only Bao-yu and Dai-yu in her own apartments to keep her amused. Ying-chun, Tan-chun and Xi-chun were to move out into the penthouse behind Lady Wang’s, with Li Wan to supervise them and keep them company. Thither, accordingly, Zhou Rui’s wife now directed her steps.
A number of little maids were sitting under the eaves there waiting to be called, and just as she arrived, Ying-chun’s maid Chess and Tan-chun’s maid Scribe came through the portière, each carrying a teacup on a tray, from which she deduced that the two cousins must be inside together.
On entering the room, Zhou’s wife found Ying-chun and Tan-chun sitting by the window playing Go. She presented the flowers and explained who they were from, and the two girls stopped their game for a moment to bow their thanks, and gave orders to the maids to take charge of them.
‘Where is Miss Xi-chun?’ Zhou Rui’s wife inquired.
‘Isn’t she in the next room?’ said the maids; and there in fact she proved to be, playing with the little nun Sapientia from Water-moon Priory. She asked Zhou Rui’s wife what she had come for, and when Zhou Rui’s wife took the flowers from the box and explained, she laughed:
‘I was telling Sapientia that one of these days I am going to have my hair shaved and go off with her to be a nun, when just at that very moment you came in with these flowers. What shall I do with flowers when I have no hair to stick them in?’
Further pleasantries followed from the others present.
Xi-chun told one of the maids to take the flowers and look after them.
‘When did you arrive?’ Zhou Rui’s wife asked Sapientia. ‘And where’s that precious Mother Superior of yours gone off to, bald-headed old mischief?’
‘We arrived first thing this morning,’ said Sapientia. ‘Mother Euergesia went off to visit the Yu mansion after she had seen Her Ladyship. She told me to wait for her here.’
‘Have you had this month’s donation yet?’ said Zhou Rui’s wife. ‘It was due on the fifteenth.’
Sapientia said that she didn’t know.
‘Who looks after the monthly donations nowadays?’ asked Xi-chun.
‘Yu Xin,’ said Zhou Rui’s wife.
‘That explains it. As soon as Mother Euergesia arrived, Yu Xin’s wife was in here like a shot and they were chattering together for ages. I expect that’s what it was about.’
After gossiping a bit longer with Sapientia, Zhou Rui’s wife made her way to Xi-feng’s quarters. To get there she had to go down a passage-way between two walls, under the windows at the back of Li Wan’s apartments, along the foot of an ornamental wall, and through a gateway in the western corner of the compound. When she entered Xi-feng’s reception room, a maid sitting on the threshold of the inner room hurriedly waved her away and told her to go across to the other side of the house. Taking the hint, Zhou Rui’s wife tiptoed quietly into the room opposite, where she found the baby’s nurse patting her rhythmically to make her sleep.
‘Is the mistress taking her afternoon nap?’ she asked the nurse in a low whisper. ‘I think you’ll have to wake her, even if she is.’
The nurse smiled, grimaced, and shook her head. Zhou Rui’s wife was about to ask her what she meant when she heard a low laugh in what was unmistakably Jia Lian’s voice from the room opposite. It was followed almost immediately by the sound of the door opening, and Patience came out carrying a large copper basin which she asked one of the maids to fetch water in.
‘Ah, Mrs Zhou!’ she said, catching sight of Zhou Rui’s wife and crossing into the room opposite. ‘What brings you back again?’
Zhou Rui’s wife hastily rose to her feet and picking up the box, proferred it to Patience and explained her mission. Patience opened the lid, selected four of the flowers, and slipped away again for several minutes. She came back with two still in her hand, which she gave to a little page called Sunshine.
‘Take these to Master Rong’s wife over in the Ning mansion and tell her they are for her to wear,’ she said. Then turning to Zhou Rui’s wife she asked her to convey Xi-feng’s thanks to the donor.
Zhou Rui’s wife now made her way towards Grandmother Jia’s apartments. Just as she was coming out of the covered passage-way, she ran head-on into her daughter, all dressed up in her best clothes having just arrived on a visit from her mother-in-law’s.
‘What’s suddenly brought you here at a time like this?’ she asked her daughter.
‘How have you been keeping, Mother? I’ve been waiting at your place for hours for you to come back. What’s been keeping you all this time? I got tired of waiting. I thought I’d go and say “hullo” to Her Old Ladyship, and now I was just on my way to see Her Ladyship. Have you still not finished then? What’s that you’ve got in your hand?’
Zhou Rui’s wife laughed.
‘Today is not my lucky day! First of all someone called Grannie Liu turned up, so like a fool I spend half the day rushing around with her. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Her Ladyship’s sister sees me and gets me delivering flowers to the young ladies. I haven’t finished yet. Now what have you come here today for? Something’s gone wrong, I’ll be bound!’
‘I don’t know how you always manage to guess, Mother, but you’re right: it has. I’ll be honest with you. My man had a cup too much to drink the other day and got into a fight with someone, and now, out of spite, they are trying to stir up trouble for him. They say his papers aren’t in order, and they’ve reported him to the yamen and want to get him deported back South to his old village. So I thought I’d come and ask your advice, Mother, and see if you couldn’t get someone here to put in a word for him. Do you think there’s anyone who would be able to help?’
‘I knew it would be something like this,’ said Zhou Rui’s wife. ‘Well, cheer up, it’s not so serious as all that! You just go back and wait while I take these flowers to Miss Lin. You can’t see Her Ladyship now. She and the young mistress are both busy.’
The daughter obediently turned back to her mother’s quarters. As she went, she said pleadingly,
‘Be as quick as you can, Mother, won’t you?’
‘Yes, yes, yes. I’ll be as quick as I can! You young people take everything so tragically! Lack of experience, that’s what it is!’ said Zhou Rui’s wife, and moved on to Dai-yu’s room.
Dai-yu was not in her own room, but with Bao-yu, trying to undo metal puzzles.
‘Miss Lin,’ said Zhou Rui’s wife with a smile, ‘Mrs Xue asked me to give you these flowers.’
‘What flowers?’ said Bao-yu. ‘Let me see!’
He stretched out his arm, took the box from Zhou Rui’s wife, and looked. Two artificial flowers, exquisitely fashioned by Palace craftsmen out of silk gauze, lay inside it. Dai-yu glanced over his arm into the box.
‘Am I the only one getting these, or have the others had some too?’
‘All the young ladies are getting them,’ said Zhou Rui’s wife. ‘These two are for you, Miss.’
‘I thought as much,’ said Dai-yu sneeringly. ‘I get the leavings when everyone else has had their pick.’
Zhou Rui’s wife received this sally in silence, not daring to retort.
‘What were you doing at my aunt’s place, Zhou?’ Bao-yu asked.
‘Her Ladyship was there, and I had something to tell her. Then while I was over there, Mrs Xue took the opportunity of giving me these flowers to deliver for her.’
‘Was Miss Bao-chai there?’ Bao-yu asked. ‘Why hasn’t she been round these last few days?’
‘She’s not very well.’
Bao-yu turned to his maids.
‘Which of you will go and see Miss Bao-chai for me? Say that Miss Lin and I send our regards to her and her mother, and ask her if her illness is any better and what she’s taking for it. Say that I really ought to go myself, but that as I’ve just got back from my lessons and have caught a bit of a cold, I shall be coming round another day.’
Snowpink said that she would go, and she and Zhou Rui’s wife left the room together and went their separate ways.
This son-in-law of Zhou Rui’s who had got himself into trouble was none other than Jia Yu-cun’s old friend, Leng Zi-xing. He had recently become involved in a lawsuit arising out of the sale of some antiques, and had asked his wife to get strings pulled for him at the mansion. Zhou Rui’s wife made light of the affair, confident of her employers’ power to influence. A word to Xi-feng in the evening, and it would be as good as settled.
At lighting-up time that evening Xi-feng came in partial négligé (having removed her ornaments for the night) to report on the day’s affairs to Lady Wang.
‘Today I received the things sent us by the Zhen family. The Zhens have their own boat delivering seasonal produce for the New Year, so I have given their people our presents to the Zhens to take back on their return journey.’
Lady Wang nodded.
‘I’ve got our birthday presents ready for the Earl of Linan’s mother,’ continued Xi-feng. ‘Who would you like us to send with them?’
‘Just see which women are free and send four of them,’ replied Lady Wang. ‘You don’t have to ask me about things like that!’
‘Today Cousin Zhen’s wife invited me to spend tomorrow with them at the other house,’ Xi-feng continued. ‘Is there anything tomorrow that needs doing here?’
‘Whether there is or not,’ said Lady Wang, ‘I don’t see that it matters. Generally when she brings an invitation it is for all of us, and you are naturally too busy to go. This time the invitation is to you personally, which shows that she had deliberately arranged this in order to give you a rest. The thought is a kind one, and it would be ungrateful to refuse. I think you ought to go.’
By now Li Wan and the three girls had also arrived for their evening duty, and when all had wished Lady Wang good night they departed to their different rooms.
Next day, as soon as Xi-feng had completed her toilet, she first reported to Lady Wang and then went to take her leave of Grandmother Jia. Hearing that she was going to the other house, Bao-yu said he wanted to go too, and Xi-feng was obliged to say that she would take him and to stand waiting for him while he changed his clothes. The two then got into a mule-cart and were soon inside the Ning-guo mansion, where Cousin Zhen’s wife You-shi, her son Jia Rong, her little daughter-in-law Qin-shi, and a large number of women attendants and maids were standing outside the inner gate ready to welcome them.
You-shi’s encounters with Xi-feng were always the occasion of good-humoured banter. Taking Bao-yu by the hand and chatting to Xi-feng, she conducted them both into the main reception room, where they all sat down and were served tea by Qin-shi.
‘Well,’ said Xi-feng, ‘what have you asked me here for? Something nice, I hope! If it’s a present, you’d better bring it now; I’m a busy woman!’
Before You-shi could think of a suitable retort, one of the women attendants replied for her:
‘You ought not to have come, Mrs Lian! Now that you’re here, we’ve got you in our power and you’ll have to do what we say for a change!’
At that moment Jia Rong came in and paid his respects to the visitors. Bao-yu asked what had happened to Cousin Zhen.
‘He’s gone into the country to see Father,’ said You-shi. Then she added, ‘It’s not much fun for you sitting here. Why don’t you go off and amuse yourself inside?’
‘You’ve chosen a good day to come, Uncle Bao,’ said little Qin-shi. ‘Last time you were here you wanted to see my brother. Well, today he’s here. He’s sitting in the study at this very moment. Why don’t you go in and see him?’
Bao-yu was for rushing off straight away. You-shi hurriedly ordered some servants to go after him in discreet attendance.
‘Well now, just a minute!’ said Xi-feng. ‘Why not ask him in here so that I can see him too?’
‘Oh dear, I don’t think that would do at all!’ said You-shi. ‘Some people’s children aren’t used to rackety ways like ours. Some people’s children are quiet and refined. If they were to meet a termagant like you, they might die of laughing.’
‘He’ll be lucky if I don’t laugh at him,’ said Xi-feng cheerfully. ‘He’d better not try laughing at me!’
‘He’s very, very shy, Auntie,’ said Jia Rong. ‘We are afraid that if you saw him it might only irritate you.’
‘Fiddlestick!’ said Xi-feng. ‘I don’t care if he’s a three-faced wonder with eight arms, I still want to see him. Stop farting about and bring him in, or I’ll box your ears!’
Jia Rong cringed in mock alarm.
‘Yes, Auntie! No need to get so fierce! We’ll bring him in straight away.’
They both laughed, and Jia Rong disappeared for a while and presently came back leading a youth who, though somewhat thinner than Bao-yu, was more than his equal in freshness and liveliness of feature, in delicacy of complexion, handsomeness of figure, and grace of deportment, but whose painful bashfulness created a somewhat girlish impression. He approached Xi-feng and made his bow with a shy confusion which delighted her.
‘You’ve met your match!’ she said to Bao-yu with a laugh, nudging him playfully. Then, leaning forward and gripping the boy’s hand in her own, she drew him down beside her and proceeded in a very deliberate manner to ask him how old he was, what books he was reading, and various other matters – among them his name, which was Qin Zhong.
When the maids and womenfolk in attendance on Xi-feng realized that she was about to meet Qin Zhong and that they had come without the requisite material for a First Meeting present, they had sent some of their number back to consult Patience in the other house. Patience had, at her own discretion, selected a suitable length of material and two little ‘Top of the List’ solid gold medallions to give the messengers. These gifts now arrived for Xi-feng (who thought them somewhat on the meagre side) to give to Qin Zhong. When he and his sister had formally thanked her, the company sat down to lunch, after which You-shi, Xi-feng and Qin-shi settled down to a game of cards, while Bao-yu and Qin Zhong left the table to converse elsewhere.
When Bao-yu first set eyes on Qin Zhong it had been as though part of his soul had left him. For a while he stared blankly, oblivious to all around him, while a stream of idle fancies passed through his mind.
‘How perfect he is! Who would have believed there could be such perfection? Now that I have seen him I know that I am just a pig wallowing in the mud, a mangy dog! Why, why did I have to be born in this pretentious aristocratic household? Why couldn’t I have been born in the family of some poor scholar or low-grade clerk? Then I could have been near him and got to know him, and my life would have been worth living. Though I am so much richer and more nobly born than he, what use are my fine clothes but to cover up the dead and rotten wood beneath? What use the luxuries I eat and drink but to fill the cesspit and swell the stinking sewer of my inside? O rank and riches! How you poison everything!’
At the same time Qin Zhong, struck by Bao-yu’s rare good looks and princely bearing and – even more perhaps – by the golden coronet and embroidered clothing and the train of pretty maids and handsome pages who attended him, was thinking:
‘No wonder my sister raves about him whenever his name is mentioned! Why did I have to be born in a poor respectable family? How I should have liked to get to know him: to have shared moments of warmth and affection with him! But it was not to be!’
Each, plunged in reverie, for a while said nothing. Then Bao-yu asked Qin Zhong about his reading, and Qin Zhong replied – a full, frank reply, without the trappings of politeness: and presently they were in the midst of a delightful conversation and were already like old friends.
After a while tea and various confections were brought in.
‘We two shan’t be drinking any wine,’ Bao-yu said to the ladies. ‘May we have a plate or two of these things set out on the little kang in the other room? We can talk in there without disturbing you,’
The two boys moved into the inner room for their tea.
In between plying Xi-feng with wine and delicacies, Qin-shi slipped in for a word with Bao-yu.
‘My brother’s quite young, Uncle Bao. Please, for my sake, don’t mind him if he does anything to offend you! He may be shy, but he’s got quite a nasty temper. He’s not really easy to get on with at all.
‘You go along!’ said Bao-yu with a smile. ‘We shall be all right!’
After a few admonitory words to her brother, Qin-shi went back to look after Xi-feng.
Some minutes later Xi-feng and You-shi sent a servant in to inquire whether the boys would like anything else to eat, adding that they had only to ask if they wanted anything. Bao-yu promised that they would; but his mind was not on eating and drinking, and he continued to question Qin Zhong about his life at home.
‘My private tutor resigned last year,’ Qin Zhong told him. ‘Father is quite old, and as his health is not very good and his job keeps him terribly busy, he hasn’t been able to do anything yet about getting me another one. At the moment I am just going over old lessons on my own at home. The trouble is, though, that if you want to get on in a subject, you really need one or two like-minded people to study with you, so that every so often you can all discuss what you have been reading…’
‘Exactly!’ Bao-yu put in eagerly, not waiting for him to finish. ‘We have a private school in our family to which any members of the clan who can’t manage private tuition may send their children, and boys from related families who aren’t in the clan can also be admitted. I have been at a loose end ever since my tutor went home on leave, and Father would have liked me to go to this school for revision until he gets back next year and I can be taught privately again. But Grandmother said that with so many boys in the school I should be sure to get up to mischief, and it would do me more harm than good. She also said I couldn’t in any case go then, because I’d only just recovered after several days in bed. And so it got put off.
‘From what you say, your father is worried about the same problem as mine; so why not tell him about this school when you get back today and ask him if you can join? I should be there to keep you company, and we could both help each other. I think it would be a marvellous idea.’
‘The other day when the question of engaging a tutor came up, Father mentioned this school of yours as a possible alternative,’ said Qin Zhong. ‘He was going to come over and have a word with my sister’s father-in-law about it and get him to recommend me; but they were busy here at the time and it didn’t seem the right moment to bother them with a little thing like this. However, if you are really of the opinion that I could be of some service to you, even if it’s only grinding your ink or cleaning your ink-stone, do please arrange it as soon as you can, before we both get too rusty! We should be relieving our parents of an anxiety and having the pleasure of each other’s company at one and the same time; so it would be a good arrangement from every point of view.’
‘Don’t worry!’ said Bao-yu. ‘I’ll tell Cousin Lian’s wife presently, when we join the others. Then when we get back home tonight, you must tell your father and I shall tell my grandmother. There’s no reason that I can see why this shouldn’t be settled immediately.’
They had concluded their discussion in gathering dusk, and now moved back into the lamplit outer room and watched the ladies at their cards for a while. When the latter had finished and had added up their scores, it appeared that Qin-shi and You-shi had lost to Xi-feng and owed her a dramatic entertainment at which the players and the drinks were to be provided at their expense. In the course of dinner, which was now served and at which they were joined by the two boys, it was decided that this should take place in two days’ time.
As it was now quite dark, You-shi gave her women orders to see that two menservants were detailed to attend Qin Zhong on his way back home. The women were gone on their errand an unusually long time and eventually Qin Zhong rose to take his leave.
‘Who has been chosen to go with him?’ You-shi asked.
‘They have asked Big Jiao,’ said the women, ‘but it seems that he is terribly drunk and swearing at everybody.’
You-shi and Qin-shi were indignant.
‘Whatever did they want to go and ask him for? Any of the younger ones would have done. What was the point of provoking him?’
‘I always said you were too soft with people,’ said Xi-feng. ‘You really mustn’t let servants get away with it like this. I never heard of such a thing!’
‘You don’t know Big Jiao,’ said You-shi. ‘Even Father couldn’t do anything with him, let alone Zhen. When he was young he went with Grandfather on three or four of his campaigns and once saved his life by pulling him from under a heap of corpses and carrying him to safety on his back. He went hungry himself and stole things for his master to eat; and once when he had managed to get half a cupful of water, he gave it to his master and drank horse’s urine himself. Because of these one or two acts of heroism he was always given special treatment during Grandfather’s lifetime; so naturally we don’t like to upset him now. But since he’s grown old he has let himself go completely. He drinks all the time, and when he’s drunk he starts abusing everybody – literally everybody. I’ve repeatedly told the steward not to give him jobs to do – to behave exactly as though he were dead and ignore him completely. Why on earth should he have chosen him today?’
‘I know this Big Jiao all right,’ said Xi-feng, ‘and I still say that you are too weak. You ought to send him away. Right away. Send him to live on one of your farms: that would put a stop to his nonsense!’ She turned to the women and asked if her own carriage was ready yet. The women replied that it was waiting, and she rose to take her leave and, taking Bao-yu by the hand, went out on to the steps, attended by You-shi and the rest.
In the flickering light of many lanterns the pages stood stiffly to attention on the pavement below, while Big Jiao, encouraged by Cousin Zhen’s absence to indulge his talent for drunken abuse, was getting to work on the Chief Steward, Lai Sheng, accusing him of being unfair, of always dropping on the weakest, and so on and so forth.
‘If there’s a cushy job going you give it to someone else, but when it’s a question of seeing someone home in pitch bloody darkness, you pick on me. Mean, rotten bugger! Call yourself a steward? Some steward! Don’t you know who Old Jiao is? I can lift my foot up higher than your head! Twenty years ago I didn’t give a damn for anybody, never mind a pack of little misbegotten abortions like you!’
He was just getting into his stride when Jia Rong came out to see Xi-feng off in her carriage. The servants shouted to Big Jiao to stop, but without success. Impatient of the old man’s insolence, Jia Rong cursed him angrily.
‘Tie him up,’ he said to the servants. ‘We shall see if he is still so eager for death tomorrow morning, when he has sobered up a bit.’
But Big Jiao was not to be intimidated by such as Jia Rong. On the contrary, he staggered up to him and bellowed even louder.
‘Oh ho! Little Rong, is it? Don’t you come the Big Master stuff with me, sonny boy! Never mind a little bit of a kid like you, even your daddy and your granddaddy don’t dare to try any funny stuff with Old Jiao. If it wasn’t for Old Jiao, where would you lot all be today, with your rank and your fancy titles and your money and all the other things you enjoy? It was your great-granddad, whose life I saved when he was given up for dead, that won all this for you, by the sweat of his brow. And what reward do I get for saving him? Nothing. Instead you come to me and you put on your Big Master act. Well, I’ll tell you something. You’d better watch out. Because if you don’t, you’re going to get a shiny white knife inside you, and it’s going to come out red!’
‘You’d better hurry up and send this unspeakable creature about his business,’ said Xi-feng to Jia Rong from her carriage. ‘It’s positively dangerous to keep a man like this on the premises. If any of our acquaintance get to know that a family like ours can’t keep even a semblance of discipline about the place, we shall become a laughing-stock.’
Jia Rong assented meekly.
Several of the servants, seeing that Big Jiao had got quite out of hand and that something had to be done at all costs, rushed up and overpowered him, and throwing him face downward on the ground, frog-marched him off to the stables. By now even Cousin Zhen was being included in his maledictions, which became wilder and noisier as he shouted to his captors that he wanted to go to the ancestral temple and weep before the tablet of his old Master.
‘Who would ever have believed the Old Master could spawn this filthy lot of animals?’ he bawled. ‘Up to their dirty little tricks every day. I know. Father-in-law pokes in the ashes. Auntie has it off with nevvy. Do you think I don’t know what you’re all up to? Oh, we “hide our broken arm in our sleeve”; but you don’t fool me.’
Terrified out of their wits at hearing a fellow-servant utter such enormities, the grooms and pages tied him up and stuffed his mouth with mud and horse-dung.
Big Jiao’s last words had been clearly audible to Xi-feng and Jia Rong, though they were a considerable distance away, but they both pretended not to have heard. Bao-yu, sitting in the carriage with Xi-feng, was less inhibited.
‘Feng, what did he mean when he said “Father-in-law pokes in the ashes”?’
‘Hold your tongue!’ Xi-feng snapped back at him, livid. ‘It’s bad enough for a person in your position to even listen to such drunken filth, but to go asking questions about it, really! Just wait till I tell your mother! You’re going to get the biggest hiding you’ve ever had in your life!’
Terrified by her vehemence, Bao-yu implored forgiveness.
‘Please, Feng, don’t tell her! I promise never to say those words again.’
Xi-feng’s manner at once became soothing and indulgent.
‘That’s my good little cuzzy! When we get back I must tell Grandma to make them explain to the school about Qin Zhong and arrange for him to be admitted soon.’
As they talked, the carriage bore them back into Rong-guo House. But what happened there will be told in the chapter which follows.