第十二回

第十二回 王熙凤毒设相思局 贾天祥正照风月鉴

话说凤姐正与平儿说话，只见有人回说：“瑞大爷来了。”凤姐急命“快请进来”。贾瑞见往里让，心中喜出望外，急忙进来，见了凤姐，满面陪笑，连连问好。凤姐儿也假意殷勤，让茶让坐。

贾瑞见凤姐如此打扮，亦发酥倒，因饧了眼问道：“二哥哥怎么还不回来？”凤姐道：“不知什么原故。”贾瑞笑道：“别是路上有人绊住了脚了，舍不得回来也未可知？”凤姐道：“也未可知。男人家见一个爱一个也是有的。”贾瑞笑道：“嫂子这话说错了，我就不这样。”凤姐笑道：“像你这样的人能有几个呢，十个里也挑不出一个来。”贾瑞听了，喜的抓耳挠腮，又道：“嫂子天天也闷的很。”凤姐道：“正是呢，只盼个人来说话解解闷儿。”贾瑞笑道：“我倒天天闲着，天天过来替嫂子解解闲闷可好不好？”凤姐笑道：“你哄我呢，你那里肯往我这里来。”贾瑞道：“我在嫂子跟前，若有一点谎话，天打雷劈！只因素日闻得人说，嫂子是个利害人，在你跟前一点也错不得，所以唬住了我。如今见嫂子最是个有说有笑极疼人的，我怎么不来，——死了也愿意！”凤姐笑道：“果然你是个明白人，比贾蓉、贾蔷两个强远了。我看他那样清秀，只当他们心里明白，谁知竟是两个胡涂虫，一点不知人心。”

贾瑞听了这话，越发撞在心坎儿上，由不得又往前凑了一凑，觑着眼看凤姐带的荷包，然后又问带着什么戒指。凤姐悄悄道：“放尊重着，别叫丫头们看了笑话。”贾瑞如听纶音[1]佛语一般，忙往后退。凤姐笑道：“你该走了。”贾瑞说：“我再坐一坐儿。——好狠心的嫂子。”凤姐又悄悄的道：“大天白日，人来人往，你就在这里也不方便。你且去，等着晚上起了更你来，悄悄的在西边穿堂儿等我。”贾瑞听了，如得珍宝，忙问道：“你别哄我。但只那里人过的多，怎么好躲的？”凤姐道：“你只放心。我把上夜的小厮们都放了假，两边门一关，再没别人了。”贾瑞听了，喜之不尽〔一〕，忙忙的告辞而去，心内以为得手。

盼到晚上，果然黑地里摸入荣府，趁掩门时，钻入穿堂。果见漆黑无一人，往贾母那边去的门户已锁，倒只有向东的门未关。贾瑞侧耳听着，半日不见人来，忽听咯噔一声，东边的门也倒关了。贾瑞急的也不敢则声，只得悄悄的出来，将门撼了撼，关的铁桶一般。此时要求出去亦不能够，南北皆是大房墙，要跳亦无攀援。这屋内又是过门风〔二〕，空落落；现是腊月天气，夜又长，朔风凛凛，侵肌裂骨，一夜几乎不曾冻死。好容易盼到早晨，只见一个老婆子先将东门开了，进去叫西门〔三〕。贾瑞瞅他背着脸，一溜烟抱着肩跑了出来，幸而天气尚早，人都未起，从后门一径跑回家去。

原来贾瑞父母早亡，只有他祖父代儒教养。那代儒素日教训最严，不许贾瑞多走一步，生怕他在外吃酒赌钱，有误学业。今忽见他一夜不归，只料定他在外非饮即赌，嫖娼宿妓，那里想到这段公案，因此气了一夜。贾瑞也捻着一把汗，少不得回来撒谎，只说：“往舅舅家去了，天黑了，留我住了一夜。”代儒道：“自来出门，非禀我不敢擅出，如何昨日私自去了？据此亦该打，何况是撒谎。”因此，发狠到底打了三四十板，不许吃饭，令他跪在院内读文章，定要补出十天的工课来方罢。贾瑞直冻了一夜，今又遭了苦打，且饿着肚子，跪着在风地里读文章，其苦万状。

此时贾瑞前心犹是未改，再想不到是凤姐捉弄他。过后两日，得了空，便仍来找凤姐。凤姐故意抱怨他失信，贾瑞急的赌身发誓。凤姐因见他自投罗网，少不得再寻别计令他知改，故又约他道：“今日晚上，你别在那里了。你在我这房后小过道子里那间空屋里等我，可别冒撞了。”贾瑞道：“果真？”凤姐道：“谁可哄你，你不信就别来。”贾瑞道：“来，来，来。死也要来！”凤姐道：“这会子你先去罢。”贾瑞料定晚间必妥，此时先去了。凤姐在这里便点兵派将，设下圈套。

那贾瑞只盼不到晚上，偏生家里亲戚又来了，直等吃了晚饭才去，那天已有掌灯时候。又等他祖父安歇了，方溜进荣府，直往那夹道中屋子里来等着，热锅上的蚂蚁一般，只是干转。左等不见人影，右听也没声响，心下自思：“别是又不来了，又冻我一夜不成？”正自胡猜，只见黑魆魆的来了一个人，贾瑞便意定是凤姐，不管皂白，饿虎一般，等那人刚至门前，便如猫捕鼠的一般，抱住叫道：“亲嫂子，等死我了。”说着，抱到屋里炕上就亲嘴扯裤子，满口里“亲娘”“亲爹”的乱叫起来。那人只不作声。贾瑞拉了自己裤子，硬帮帮的就想顶入。忽见灯光一闪，只见贾蔷举着个捻子[5]照道：“谁在屋里？”只见炕上那人笑道：“瑞大叔要臊我呢。”贾瑞一见，却是贾蓉，真臊的无地可入，不知要怎么样才好，回身就要跑，被贾蔷一把揪住道：“别走！如今琏二婶已经告到太太跟前，说你无故调戏他。他暂用了个脱身计，哄你在这边等着，太太气死过去，因此叫我来拿你。刚才你又拦住他，没的说，跟我去见太太！”

贾瑞听了，魂不附体，只说：“好侄儿，只说没有见我，明日我重重的谢你。”贾蔷道：“你若谢我，放你不值什么，只不知你谢我多少？况且口说无凭，写一文契来。”贾瑞道：“这如何落纸呢？”贾蔷道：“这也不妨，写一个赌钱输了外人帐目，借头家银若干两便罢。”贾瑞道：“这也容易。只是此时无纸笔。”贾蔷道：“这也容易。”说罢，翻身出来，纸笔现成，拿来命贾瑞写。他俩作好作歹，只写了五十两，然后画了押，贾蔷收起来。然后撕逻贾蓉。贾蓉先咬定牙不依，只说：“明日告诉族中的人评评理。”贾瑞急的至于叩头。贾蔷作好作歹的，也写了一张五十两欠契才罢。

贾蔷又道：“如今要放你，我就担着不是。老太太那边的门早已关了，老爷正在厅上看南京的东西，那一条路定难过去，如今只好走后门。若这一走，倘或遇见了人，连我也完了。等我们先去哨探哨探，再来领你。这屋你还藏不得，少时就来堆东西。等我寻个地方。”说毕，拉着贾瑞，仍熄了灯，出至院外，摸着大台矶底下，说道：“这窝儿里好，你只蹲着，别哼一声，等我们来〔四〕再动。”说毕，二人去了。

贾瑞此时身不由己，只得蹲在那里。心下正盘算，只听头顶上一声响，拉拉一净桶尿粪从上面直泼下来，可巧浇了他一身一头。贾瑞撑不住嗳哟了一声，忙又掩住口，不敢声张，满头满脸浑身皆是尿屎，冰冷打战。只见贾蔷跑来叫：“快走，快走！”贾瑞如得了命，三步两步从后门跑到家里，天已三更，只得叫门。开门人见他这般景况，问是怎的。少不得扯谎说：“黑了，失脚掉在茅厕里了。”一面到了自己房中更衣洗濯，心下方想到是凤姐顽他，因此发一回恨；再想想凤姐的模样儿，又恨不得一时搂在怀内，一夜竟不曾合眼。

自此满心想凤姐，只不敢往荣府去了。贾蓉两个又常常的来索银子，他又怕祖父知道，正是相思尚且难禁，更又添了债务；日间工课又紧，他二十来岁人，尚未娶亲，迩来想着凤姐，未免有那指头告了消乏[7]等事；更兼两回冻恼奔波，因此三五下里夹攻，不觉就得了一病。心内发膨胀，口中无滋味，脚下如绵，眼中似醋，黑夜作烧，白昼常倦，下溺连精，嗽痰带血：诸如此症，不上一年都添全了。于是不能支持，一头睡倒，合上眼还只梦魂颠倒，满口乱说胡话，惊怖异常。百般请医疗治，诸如肉桂、附子、鳖甲、麦冬、玉竹等药，吃了有几十斤下去，也不见个动静。

倏又腊尽春回，这病更又沉重。代儒也着了忙，各处请医疗治，皆不见效。因后来吃“独参汤”[8]，代儒如何有这力量，只得往荣府来寻。王夫人命凤姐秤二两给他，凤姐回说：“前儿新近都替老太太配了药，那整的太太又说留着送杨提督的太太配药，偏生昨儿我已送了去了。”王夫人道：“就是咱们这边没了，你打发个人往你婆婆那边问问，或是你珍大哥哥那府里再寻些来，凑着给人家。吃好了，救人一命，也是你的好处。”凤姐听了，也不遣人去寻，只得将些渣末泡须凑了几钱，命人送去，只说：“太太送来的，再也没了。”然后回王夫人，只说：“都寻了来，共凑了有二两送去。”

那贾瑞此时要命心甚切，无药不吃，只是白花钱，不见效。忽然这日有个跛足道人来化斋，口称专治冤业之症[9]。贾瑞偏生在内就听见了，直着声叫喊说：“快请进那位菩萨来救我！”一面叫〔五〕，一面在枕上叩首。众人只得带了那道士进来。贾瑞一把拉住，连叫“菩萨救我！”那道士叹道：“你这病非药可医。我有个宝贝与你，你天天看时，此命可保矣。”说毕，从褡裢中取出一面镜子来——两面皆可照人，镜把上面錾着“风月宝鉴”四字——递与贾瑞道：“这物出自太虚幻境空灵殿上，警幻仙子所制，专治邪思妄动之症，有济世保生之功。所以带他到世上，单与那些聪明杰俊、风雅王孙等看照。千万不可照正面，只照他的背面，要紧，要紧！三日后吾来收取，管叫你好了。”说毕，佯常而去[11]，众人苦留不住。

贾瑞收了镜子，想道：“这道士倒有意思，我何不照一照试试。”想毕，拿起“风月鉴”来，向反面一照，只见一个骷髅立在里面，唬得贾瑞连忙掩了，骂：“道士混帐，如何吓我！——我倒再照正面是什么。”想着，又将正面一照，只见凤姐站在里面招手叫他。贾瑞心中一喜，荡悠悠的觉得进了镜子，与凤姐云雨一番，凤姐仍送他出来。到了床上，嗳哟了一声，一睁眼，镜子从手里掉过来，仍是反面立着一个骷髅。贾瑞自觉汗津津的，底下已遗了一滩精。心中到底不足，又翻过正面来，只见凤姐还招手叫他，他又进去。如此三四次。到了这次，刚要出镜子来，只见两个人走来，拿铁锁把他套住，拉了就走。贾瑞叫道：“让我拿了镜子再走。”——只说了这句，就再不能说话了。

旁边服侍贾瑞的众人，只见他先还拿着镜子照，落下来，仍睁开眼拾在手内，末后镜子落下来便不动了。众人上来看看，已没了气，身子底下冰凉渍湿〔六〕一大滩精，这才忙着穿衣抬床。代儒夫妇哭的死去活来，大骂道士，“是何妖镜！若不早毁此物，遗害于世不小。”遂命架火来烧，只听镜内哭道：“谁叫你们瞧正面了！你们自己以假为真，何苦来烧我？”正哭着，只见那跛足道人从外面跑来，喊道：“谁毁‘风月鉴’，吾来救也！”说着，直入中堂，抢入手内，飘然去了。

当下，代儒料理丧事，各处去报丧。三日起经[13]，七日发引[14]，寄灵于铁槛寺，日后带回原籍。当下贾家众人齐来吊问，荣国府贾赦赠银二十两，贾政亦是二十两，宁国府贾珍亦有二十两，别者族中贫富不等，或三两五两，不可胜数。另有各同窗家分资，也凑了二三十两。代儒家道虽然淡薄，倒也丰丰富富完了此事。

谁知这年冬底，林如海〔七〕的书信寄来，却为身染重疾，写书特来接林黛玉回去。贾母听了，未免又加忧闷，只得忙忙的打点黛玉起身。宝玉大不自在，争奈父女之情，也不好拦劝。于是贾母定要贾琏送他去，仍叫带回来。一应土仪盘缠[16]，不消烦说，自然要妥贴。作速择了日期，贾琏与林黛玉辞别了贾母等〔八〕，带领仆从，登舟往扬州去了。要知端的，且听下回分解。

[1] 纶（lún伦）音——皇帝的命令。《礼记·缁衣》：“王言如丝，其出如纶；王言如纶，其出如（fú弗）。”意思是帝王出言影响重大。后常以“纶音”代指“圣旨”。纶：古代缚印玺或帷幕用的带子。：粗绳。

〔一〕 “喜之不尽”，原“尽”为“禁”点改，从改文。

〔二〕 “过门风”，各本同。原作“过门风”，又添改为“过堂儿风又大”。

〔三〕 “进去叫西门”，原“去”后有“又”字，“叫”字点改为“开”。俄藏本作“进来叫西门”。从梦稿、蒙府、甲辰本改。

[5] 捻（niǎn碾）子——用纸搓成的条状物，本用作引火，此借以照明。

〔四〕 “等我们来”，原无“等”字，从梦稿、蒙府、戚序、舒序、甲辰、俄藏本补。

[7] 指头告了消乏——手淫。“了”音liǎo。

[8] 独参汤——中医方剂名。治元气大亏、阳气暴脱的危症。在一般方剂中，各种药配伍，人参用量不过数钱，独参汤独用人参一味，重或一、二两，取其功专而力大。方剂见葛乾孙《十药神书》。

[9] 冤业之症——迷信说法，由于“结冤造孽”而得的病症。业：同“孽”，罪过、邪恶的意思。

〔五〕 “一面叫”，原无，从各本补。

[11] 佯（yánɡ羊）常而去——大模大样地离去。佯常：同“扬长”。或谓佯常亦作“常佯”、“倘佯”，意为徘徊、盘旋，自由自在地往来。

〔六〕 “冰凉渍湿”，俄藏本作“冰凉希湿”。从梦稿、蒙府、戚序、甲辰本。底本原作“冰渍渍湿”，“冰”点改为“水”，后一“渍”字为旁添，“湿”字点去。

[13] 起经——旧俗，人死后第三天，开始请和尚道士念经，叫起经。

[14] 发引——出殡时，送丧人牵着引索作前导，把灵柩从停放的地方运出，叫发引。引：牵引灵柩的索子。

〔七〕 “林如海”，原作“林儒海”，从各本改。

[16] 土仪盘缠——用土产作为赠人的礼物叫土仪。仪：礼物。盘缠：即盘川，旅费。

〔八〕 “贾母等”，原作“同人”，从梦稿本改。

CHAPTER 12. Wang Xi-feng sets a trap for her admirer And Jia Rui looks into the wrong side of the mirror

Jia Rui’s arrival was announced while Xi-feng and Patience were still talking about him.

‘Ask him in,’ said Xi-feng.

Hearing that he was to be received, Jia Rui rejoiced inwardly. He came into the room wreathed in smiles and overwhelmed Xi-feng with civilities. With feigned solicitude she pressed him to be seated and to take tea. He became quite ecstatic at the sight of her informal dress.

‘Why isn’t Cousin Lian back yet?’ he asked, staring with fascinated eyes.

‘I don’t know what the reason can be,’ said Xi-feng.

‘Could it be,’ Jia Rui inquired archly, ‘that Someone has detained him on his way home and that he can’t tear himself away?’

‘Men are all the same!’ said Xi-feng. ‘They have only to set eyes on a woman to begin another affair.’

‘Ah, there you are wrong!’ said Jia Rui. ‘I am not that sort of man.’

‘But how many men are there like you?’ said Xi-feng. ‘I doubt you could find one in ten.’

At this last remark Jia Rui positively scratched his ears with pleasure.

‘You must find it very dull here on your own every day,’ he said.

‘Yes, indeed!’ said Xi-feng. ‘If only there were someone who could come and talk to me and help me to pass the time!’

‘Well,’ said Jia Rui, ‘I am always free. How would it be if I were to come every day to help you pass the time?’

‘You must be joking!’ said Xi-feng. ‘What would you want to come here for?’

‘I mean every word I say,’ said Jia Rui. ‘May I be struck by lightning if I don’t! True, there was a time when I should have been scared to come, because people always told me what a holy terror you were and how dangerous it was to cross you; but now I know that in reality you are all gentleness and fun, there is nothing that could stop me coming. I would come now if it cost me my life.’

‘It’s true then,’ said Xi-feng, smiling delightedly. ‘You really are an understanding sort of person – so much more so than Rong or Qiang! I used to think that since they were such handsome and cultured-looking young men they must be understanding as well, but they turned out to be stupid brutes without the least consideration for other people’s feelings.’

This little speech went straight to Jia Rui’s heart, and unconsciously he began edging his seat nearer to Xi-feng’s. He peered closely at an embroidered purse that she was wearing and expressed a strong interest in one of her rings.

‘Take care!’ said Xi-feng in a low tone. ‘The servants might see you!’

Obedient to his goddess’s command, Jia Rui quickly drew back again. Xi-feng laughed.

‘You had better go!’

‘Ah no, cruel cousin! Let me stay a little longer!’

‘Even if you stay, it’s not very convenient here in broad daylight, with people coming and going all the time. Go away now and come back later when it’s dark, at the beginning of the first watch. You can slip into the gallery west of this apartment and wait for me there.’

Jia Rui received these words like someone being presented with a rare and costly jewel.

‘Are you sure you’re not joking?’ he asked hurriedly. ‘A lot of people must go through that way. How should we avoid being seen?’

‘Don’t worry!’ said Xi-feng. ‘I’ll give the watchmen a night off. When the side gates are closed, no one else can get through.’

Jia Rui was beside himself with delight and hurriedly took his leave, confident that the fulfilment of all he wished for was now in sight. Having waited impatiently for nightfall, he groped his way into the Rong-guo mansion just before they closed the gates and slipped into the gallery, now totally deserted – as Xi-feng had promised it would be – and black as pitch.

The gate at the end of the alley-way opening on to Grandmother Jia’s quarters had already been barred on the outer side; only the gate at the east end remained open. For a long time Jia Rui listened intently, but no one came. Suddenly there was a loud slam and the gate at the east end, too, banged shut. Alarmed, but not daring to make a sound, Jia Rui stealthily crept out and tried it. It was locked – as tight as a bucket. Now even if he wanted to get out he could not, for the walls on either side of the alley-way were too high to scale. Moreover the gallery was bare and draughty and this was the midwinter season when the nights are long and the bitter north wind seems to pierce into the very marrow of the bones. By the end of the night he was almost dead with cold.

When at last morning came, Jia Rui saw the gate at the east end open and an old woman pass through to the gate opposite and call for someone to open up. Still hugging himself against the cold, he sprinted out of the other gate while her back was towards him. Fortunately no one was about at that early hour, and he was able to slip out of the rear entrance of the mansion and run back home unseen.

Jia Rui had lost both of his parents in infancy and had been brought up under the sole guardianship of his grandfather Jia Dai-ru. Obsessed by the fear that once outside the house his grandson might indulge in drinking and gambling to the detriment of his studies, Dai-ru had subjected him since early youth to an iron discipline from which not the slightest deviation was tolerated. Seeing him now suddenly absent himself a whole night from home, and being incapable, in his wildest imaginings, of guessing what had really happened, he took it as a foregone conclusion that he had been either drinking or gaming and had probably passed the night in some house of prostitution – a supposition which caused the old gentleman to spend the whole night in a state of extreme choler.

The prospect of facing his grandfather on arrival made Jia Rui sweat. A lie of some sort was indispensable.

‘I went to see Uncle yesterday,’ he managed to say, ‘and as it was getting dark, he asked me to stay the night.’

‘I have always told you that you are not to go out of that gate without first informing me,’ said his grandfather. ‘Why then did you presume to go off on your own yesterday without saying a word to anybody? That in itself would constitute sufficient grounds for chastisement. But in addition to that you are lying!’

Thereupon he forced him to the ground, and, with the utmost savagery, dealt him thirty or forty whacks with the bamboo, after which he forbade him to eat and made him kneel in the open courtyard with a book in his hand until he had prepared the equivalent of ten days’ homework.

The exquisite torments suffered by Jia Rui, as he knelt with an empty stomach in the draughty courtyard reciting his homework after having already been frozen all night long and then beaten, can be imagined.

Yet even now his infatuation remained unaltered. It never entered his mind that he had been made a fool of. And so two days later, as soon as he had some free time, he was back once more looking for Xi-feng. She deliberately reproached him for having failed her, thereby so exasperating him that he swore by the most terrible oaths that he had been faithful. Seeing him hurl himself so willingly into the net, Xi-feng decided that a further lesson would be needed to cure him of his folly and proposed another assignation.

‘Only tonight,’ she said, ‘don’t wait for me in that place again. Wait in the empty room in the little passage-way behind this apartment. But mind you don’t run into anybody.’

‘Do you really mean this?’ said Jia Rui.

‘If you don’t believe me, don’t come!’

‘I’ll come! I’ll come!’ said Jia Rui. ‘Whatever happens, I shall be there.’

‘Now I think you had better go.’

Confident of seeing her again in the evening, Jia Rui went off uncomplainingly, leaving Xi-feng time to muster her forces, brief her officers, and prepare the trap in which the luckless man was to be caught.

Jia Rui waited for the evening with great impatience. By a stroke of bad luck some relations came on a visit and stayed to supper. It was already lamplight when they left, and Jia Rui then had to wait for his grandfather to settle down for the night before he could scuttle off to the Rong mansion and make his way to the room in the little passage-way where Xi-feng had told him to go. He waited there for her arrival with the frenzied agitation of an ant on a hot saucepan. Yet, though he waited and waited, not a human shape appeared nor a human sound was heard, and he began to be frightened and a little suspicious:

‘Surely she won’t fail me? Surely I shan’t be made to spend another night in the cold…?’

As he was in the midst of these gloomy imaginings, a dark figure glided into the room. Certain that it must be Xi-feng, Jia Rui cast all caution to the winds and, when the figure approached him, threw himself upon it like a hungry tiger seizing its prey or a cat pouncing on a harmless mouse.

‘My darling, how I have waited for you!’ he exclaimed, enfolding his beloved in his arms; and carrying her to the kang, he laid her down and began kissing her and tugging at her trousers, murmuring ‘my sweetest darling’ and ‘my honey love’ and other such endearments in between kisses. Throughout all of this not a single sound was uttered by his partner. Jia Rui now tore down his own trousers and prepared to thrust home his hard and throbbing member. Suddenly a light flashed – and there was Jia Qiang holding aloft a candle in a candlestick which he shone around:

‘Who is in this room?’

At this the person on the kang gave a giggle:

‘Uncle Rui is trying to bugger me!’

Horrors! The sight he saw when he looked down made Jia Rui want to sink into the ground. It was Jia Rong! He turned to bolt, but Jia Qiang held him fast.

‘Oh no you don’t! Auntie Lian has already told Lady Wang that you have been pestering her. She asked us to keep you here while she went to tell. When Lady Wang first heard, she was so angry that she fainted, but now she’s come round again and is asking for you to be brought to her. Come along, then! Off we go!’

At these words Jia Rui’s soul almost left its seat in his body.

‘My dear nephew, just tell her that you didn’t find me here!’ he said. ‘Tomorrow I will reward you handsomely.’

‘I suppose I could let you go easily enough,’ said Jia Qiang. ‘The question is, how big would this reward be? In any case, just saying that you will give me a reward is no good. I should want a written guarantee.’

‘But I can’t put a thing like this down in writing!’

‘No problem there,’ said Jia Qiang. ‘Just say that you’ve lost money gambling and have borrowed such and such an amount to cover your losses. That’s all you need do.’

‘I could do that, certainly,’ said Jia Rui.

Jia Qiang at once disappeared and reappeared only a moment later with paper and a writing-brush which had evidently been made ready in advance. Writing at his dictation Jia Rui was compelled, in spite of protests, to put down fifty taels of silver as the amount on the IOU. The document, having been duly signed, was at once pocketed by Jia Qiang, who then pretended to seek the connivance of Jia Rong. But Jia Rong feigned the most obdurate incorruptibility and insisted that he would lay the matter next day before a council of the whole clan and see that justice was done. Jia Rui became quite frantic and kotowed to him. Finally, under pressure from Jia Qiang and in return for another IOU for fifty taels of silver made out in his favour, he allowed his scruples to be overcome.

‘You realize, don’t you,’ said Jia Qiang, ‘that I’m going to get into trouble for this? Now let’s see. The gate leading to Lady Jia’s courtyard was bolted some time ago, and Sir Zheng is at the moment in the main reception room looking at some stuff that has just arrived from Nanking, so you can’t go through that way. The only way left would be through the back gate. The trouble is, though, that if you leave now, you might run into someone on the way, and then I should get into even worse trouble. You’d better let me scout around a bit first and come for you when the coast is clear. In the meantime you can’t hide here, though, because they will shortly be coming in to store the stuff from Nanking here. I’ll find somewhere else for you.’

He took Jia Rui by the arm, and having first blown the candle out, led him into the courtyard and groped his way round to the underside of the steps which led up to the terrace of the central building.

‘This hollow under the steps will do. Crouch down there, and don’t make a sound! You can go when I come for you.’

Jia Qiang and Jia Rong then went off leaving him to himself.

Jia Rui, by now a mere automaton in the hands of his captors, obediently crouched down beneath the steps and was just beginning a series of calculations respecting his present financial predicament when a sudden slosh! signalled the discharge of a slop-pail’s stinking contents immediately above his head, drenching him from top to toe with liquid filth and causing him to cry out in dismay – but only momentarily, for the excrement covered his face and head and caused him to close his mouth again in a hurry and crouch silent and shivering in the icy cold. Just then Jia Qiang came running up:

‘Hurry! hurry! You can go now.’

At the word of command Jia Rui bounded out of his hole and sprinted for dear life through the rear gate and back to his own home. It was now past midnight, and he had to shout for someone to let him in. When the servant who answered the gate saw the state he was in and asked him how it had happened, he had to pretend that he had been out in the darkness to ease himself and had fallen into the jakes. Then rushing into his own room he stripped off his clothes and washed, his mind running all the time on how Xi-feng had tricked him. The thought of her trickery provoked a surge of hatred in his soul; yet even as he hated her, the vision of her loveliness made him long to clasp her to his breast. Torn by these violent and conflicting emotions, he passed the whole night without a single wink of sleep.

From that time on, though he longed for Xi-feng with unabated passion, he never dared to visit the Rong-guo mansion again. Jia Rong and Jia Qiang, on the other hand, came frequently to his house to ask for their money, so that he was in constant dread of his grandfather finding out about the IOUs.

Unable, even now, to overcome his longing for Xi-feng, saddled with a heavy burden of debt, harassed during the daytime by the schoolwork set him by his exacting grandfather, worn-out during the nights by the excessive hand-pumping inevitable in an unmarried man of twenty whose mistress was both unattainable and constantly in his thoughts, twice frozen, tormented and forced to flee – what constitution could with-stand so many shocks and strains without succumbing in the end to illness? The symptoms of Jia Rui’s illness – a palpitation in the heart, a loss of taste in the mouth, a weakness in the hams, a smarting in the eyes, feverishness by night and lassitude by day, albumen in the urine and blood-flecks in the phlegm – had all manifested themselves within less than a year. By that time they had produced a complete breakdown and driven him to his bed, where he lay, with eyes tight shut, babbling deliriously and inspiring terror in all who saw him. Physicians were called in to treat him and some bushels of cinnamon bark, autumn root, turtle-shell, black leek and Solomon’s seal must at one time and another have been infused and taken without the least observable effect.

Winter went and spring came and Jia Rui’s sickness grew even worse. His grandfather Dai-ru was in despair. Medical advice from every quarter had been taken and none of it had proved effective. The most recent advice was that the patient should be given a pure decoction of ginseng without admixture of other ingredients. So costly a remedy was far beyond Dai-ru’s resources and he was obliged to go to the Rong-guo mansion to beg. Lady Wang ordered Wang Xi-feng to weigh out two ounces for him from their own supplies.

‘The other day when we were making up a new lot of pills for Grandmother,’ said Xi-feng, ‘you told me to keep any of the remaining whole roots for a medicine you were sending to General Yang’s wife. I sent her the medicine yesterday, so I am afraid we haven’t any left.’

‘Well, even if we haven’t got any,’ said Lady Wang, ‘you can send to your mother-in-law’s for some; and probably they will have some at your Cousin Zhen’s. Between you you ought somehow or other to be able to raise enough to give him. If you can save a man’s life by doing so, you will have performed a work of merit.’

But though Xi-feng pretended to do as Lady Wang suggested, in fact she made no such inquiries. She merely scraped a few drams of broken bits together and sent them to Dai-ru with a message that ‘Lady Wang had instructed her to send this, and it was all they had.’ To Lady Wang, however, she reported that she had asked the others and altogether obtained more than two ounces of ginseng which she had sent to Dai-ru.

Jia Rui now wanted desperately to live and eagerly swallowed every medicine that they offered him; but all was a waste of money, for nothing seemed to do him any good. One day a lame Taoist appeared at the door asking for alms and claiming to be able to cure retributory illnesses. Jia Rui, who chanced to overhear him, called out from his bed:

‘Quick, tell the holy man to come in and save me!’ and as he called, he kotowed with his head on the pillow. The servants were obliged to bring the Taoist into the bedroom. Jia Rui clung to him tenaciously.

‘Holy one, save me!’ he cried out again and again.

The Taoist sighed.

‘No medicine will cure your sickness. However, I have a precious thing here that I can lend you which, if you will look at it every day, can be guaranteed to save your life.’

So saying, he took from his satchel a mirror which had reflecting surfaces on both its sides. The words A MIRROR FOR THE ROMANTIC were inscribed on the back. He handed it to Jia Rui.

‘This object comes from the Hall of Emptiness in the Land of Illusion. It was fashioned by the fairy Disenchantment as an antidote to the ill effects of impure mental activity. It has life-giving and restorative properties and has been brought into the world for the contemplation of those intelligent and handsome young gentlemen whose hearts are too susceptible to the charms of beauty. I lend it to you on one important condition: you must only look into the back of the mirror. Never, never under any circumstances look into the front. Three days hence I shall come again to reclaim it, by which time I guarantee that your illness will have gone.’

With that he left, at a surprising speed, ignoring the earnest entreaties of those present that he should stay longer.

‘This is intriguing!’ Jia Rui thought to himself when the Taoist gave him the mirror. ‘Let me try looking into it as he says,’ and holding it up to his face he looked into the back as instructed and saw a grinning skull, which he covered up hastily with a curse:

‘Silly old fool, to scare me like that! – But let me see what happens when I look into the other side!’

He turned the mirror round and looked, and there inside was Xi-feng beckoning to him to enter, and his ravished soul floated into the mirror after her. There they performed the act of love together, after which she saw him out again. But when he found himself once more back in his bed he stared and cried out in horror: for the mirror, of its own accord, had turned itself round in his hand and the same grinning skull faced him that he had seen before. He could feel the sweat trickling all over his body and lower down in the bed a little pool of semen that he had just ejaculated.

Yet still he was not satisfied, and turned the face of the mirror once more towards him. Xi-feng was there beckoning to him again and calling, and again he went in after her. He did this three or four times. But the last time, just as he was going to return from the mirror, two figures approached him holding iron chains which they fastened round him and by which they proceeded to drag him away. He cried out as they dragged him:

‘Wait! Let me take the mirror with me…!’

Those were the last words he ever uttered.

To those who stood around the bed and watched him while this was happening he appeared first to be holding up the mirror and looking into it, then to let it drop; then to open his eyes in a ghastly stare and pick it up again; then, as it once more fell from his grasp, he finally ceased to move.

When they examined him more closely they found that his breathing had already stopped and that underneath his body there was a large, wet, icy patch of recently ejaculated semen.

At once they lifted him from the bed and busied themselves with the laying-out, while old Dai-ru and his wife abandoned themselves to a paroxysm of grief. They cursed the Taoist for a necromancer and ordered the servants to heap up a fire and cast the mirror upon the flames. But just at that moment a voice was heard in the air saying, ‘Who told him to look in the front? It is you who are to blame, for confusing the unreal with the real! Why then should you burn my mirror?’

Suddenly the mirror was seen to rise up and fly out of the room, and when Dai-ru went outside to look, there was the lame Taoist asking for it back. He snatched it as it flew towards him and disappeared before Dai-ru’s very eyes.

Seeing that there was to be no redress, Dai-ru was obliged to set about preparing for the funeral and began by announcing his grandson’s death to everybody concerned. Reading of the sūtras began on the third day and on the seventh the coffin was drawn in procession to temporary lodging in the Temple of the Iron Threshold to await future reburial. The various members of the Jia family all came in due course to offer their condolences. From the Rong-guo side Jia She and Jia Zheng each gave twenty taels of silver and from the Ning-guo side Cousin Zhen also gave twenty taels. The other members of the clan gave amounts varying from one to four taels according to their means. A collection made among the parents of the dead man’s fellow-students raised an additional twenty or thirty taels. Although Dai-ru’s means were slender, with so much monetary help coming in he was able to perform the whole business in considerable style.

Towards the end of the year in which Jia Rui’s troubles started Lin Ru-hai fell seriously ill and wrote a letter asking to see Dai-yu again. Though Grandmother Jia was plunged into deepest gloom by the letter, she was obliged to prepare with all possible expedition for her granddaughter’s departure. And Bao-yu, though he too was distressed at the prospect of Dai-yu’s leaving him, could scarcely seek to interfere in a matter affecting the natural feelings of a father and his child. Grandmother Jia insisted that Jia Lian should accompany Dai-yu and see her safely there and back. The various gifts to be taken and the journey-money were, it goes without saying, duly prepared. A suitable day on which to commence the journey was quickly determined and Jia Lian and Dai-yu took leave of all the rest and, embarking with their attendants, set sail for Yangchow.

If you wish for further details, you may learn them in the following chapter.