第三十三回

第三十三回 手足眈眈小动唇舌 不肖种种大承笞挞

却说王夫人唤他母亲上来，拿几件簪环当面赏与，又吩咐请几众僧人念经超度。他母亲磕头谢了出去。

原来宝玉会过雨村回来听见了，便知金钏儿含羞赌气自尽，心中早又五内摧伤，进来被王夫人数落教训，也无可回说。见宝钗进来，方得便出来，茫然不知何往，背着手，低头一面感叹，一面慢慢的走着，信步来至厅上。

刚转过屏门，不想对面来了一人正往里走，可巧儿撞了个满怀。只听那人喝了一声“站住！”宝玉唬了一跳，抬头一看，不是别人，却是他父亲，不觉的倒抽了一口气，只得垂手一旁站了。贾政道：“好端端的，你垂头丧气嗐些什么？方才雨村来了要见你，叫你那半天你才出来；既出来了〔一〕，全无一点慷慨挥洒谈吐，仍是葳葳蕤蕤。我看你脸上一团思欲愁闷气色，这会子又咳声叹气。你那些还不足，还不自在？无故这样，却是为何？”宝玉素日虽是口角伶俐，只是此时一心总为金钏儿感伤，恨不得此时也身亡命殒，跟了金钏儿去。如今见了他父亲说这些话，究竟不曾听见，只是怔呵呵的站着。

贾政见他惶悚，应对不似往日，原本无气的，这一来倒生了三分气。方欲说话，忽有回事人来回：“忠顺亲王府里有人来，要见老爷。”贾政听了，心下疑惑，暗暗思忖道：“素日并不和忠顺府来往，为什么今日打发人来？”一面想，一面令“快请”，急走出来看时，却是忠顺府长史官[4]，忙接进厅上坐了献茶。

未及叙谈，那长史官先就说道：“下官此来，并非擅造潭府[5]，皆因奉王命而来，有一件事相求。看王爷面上，敢烦老大人作主，不但王爷知情，且连下官辈亦感谢不尽。”贾政听了这话，抓不住头脑，忙陪笑起身问道：“大人既奉王命而来，不知有何见谕，望大人宣明，学生好遵谕承办。”那长史官〔二〕便冷笑道：“也不必承办，只用大人一句话就完了。我们府里有一个做小旦的琪官，一向好好在府里，如今竟三五日不见回去，各处去找，又摸不着他的道路，因此各处访察。这一城内，十停人倒有八停人都说，他近日和衔玉的那位令郎相与甚厚。下官辈等听了，尊府不比别家，可以擅入索取，因此启明王爷。王爷亦云：‘若是别的戏子呢，一百个也罢了；只是这琪官随机应答，谨慎老诚，甚合我老人家的心，竟断断少不得此人。’故此求老大人转谕令郎，请将琪官放回，一则可慰王爷谆谆奉恳，二则下官辈也可免操劳求觅之苦。”说毕，忙打一躬。

贾政听了这话，又惊又气，即命唤宝玉来。宝玉也不知是何原故，忙赶来时，贾政便问：“该死的奴才！你在家不读书也罢了，怎么又做出这些无法无天的事来！那琪官现是忠顺王爷驾前承奉的人，你是何等草芥，无故引逗他出来，如今祸及于我。”宝玉听了唬了一跳，忙回道：“实在不知此事。究竟连‘琪官’两个字不知为何物，岂更又加‘引逗’二字！”说着便哭了。

贾政未及开言，只见那长史官冷笑道：“公子也不必掩饰。或隐藏在家，或知其下落，早说了出来，我们也少受些辛苦，岂不念公子之德？”宝玉连说不知，“恐是讹传，也未见得。”那长史官冷笑道：“现有据证，何必还赖？必定当着老大人说了出来，公子岂不吃亏？既云不知此人，那红汗巾子怎么到了公子腰里？”宝玉听了这话，不觉轰去魂魄，目瞪口呆，心下自思：“这话他如何得知！他既连这样机密事都知道了，大约别的瞒他不过，不如打发他去了，免的再说出别的事来。”因说道：“大人既知他的底细，如何连他置买房舍这样大事倒不晓得了？听得说他如今在东郊离城二十里有个什么紫檀堡，他在那里置了几亩田地几间房舍。想是在那里也未可知。”那长史官听了，笑道：“这样说，一定是在那里。我且去找一回，若有了便罢，若没有，还要来请教。”说着，便忙忙的走了。

贾政此时气的目瞪口歪，一面送那长史官，一面回头命宝玉“不许动！回来有话问你！”一直送那官员去了。才回身，忽见贾环带着几个小厮一阵乱跑。贾政喝令小厮“快打，快打！”贾环见了他父亲，唬的骨软筋酥，忙低头站住。贾政便问：“你跑什么？带着你的那些人都不管你，不知往那里逛去，由你野马一般！”喝令叫跟上学的人来。贾环见他父亲盛怒，便乘机说道：“方才原不曾跑，只因从那井边一过，那井里淹死了一个丫头，我看见人头这样大，身子这样粗，泡的实在可怕，所以才赶着跑了过来。”贾政听了惊疑，问道：“好端端的，谁去跳井？我家从无这样事情，自祖宗以来，皆是宽柔以待下人。——大约我近年于家务疏懒，自然执事人操克夺之权[7]，致使生出这暴殄轻生[8]的祸患。若外人知道，祖宗颜面何在！”喝令快叫贾琏、赖大、兴儿来〔三〕。

小厮们答应了一声，方欲叫去，贾环忙上前拉住贾政的袍襟，贴膝跪下道：“父亲不用生气。此事除太太房里的人，别人一点也不知道。我听见我母亲说……”说到这里，便回头四顾一看。贾政知意，将眼一看众小厮，小厮们明白，都往两边后面退去。贾环便悄悄说道：“我母亲告诉我说，宝玉哥哥前日在太太屋里，拉着太太的丫头金钏儿强奸不遂，打了一顿。那金钏儿便赌气投井死了。”

话未说完，把个贾政气的面如金纸，大喝“快拿宝玉来！”一面说，一面便往里边书房里去，喝令“今日再有人劝我，我把这冠带家私[10]一应交与他与宝玉过去！我免不得做个罪人，把这几根烦恼鬓毛剃去，寻个干净去处[11]自了，也免得上辱先人下生逆子之罪。”众门客仆从见贾政这个形景，便知又是为宝玉了，一个个都是啖指咬舌，连忙退出。那贾政喘吁吁直挺挺坐在椅子上，满面泪痕，一叠声“拿宝玉！拿大棍！拿索子捆上！把各门都关上！有人传信往里头去，立刻打死！”众小厮们只得齐声答应，有几个来找宝玉。

那宝玉听见贾政吩咐他“不许动”，早知多凶少吉，那里承望贾环又添了许多的话。正在厅上干转，怎得个人来往里头去捎信，偏生没个人，连焙茗也不知在那里。正盼望时，只见一个老姆姆出来。宝玉如得了珍宝，便赶上来拉他，说道：“快进去告诉：老爷要打我呢！快去，快去！要紧，要紧！”宝玉一则急了，说话不明白；二则老婆子偏生又聋，竟不曾听见是什么话，把“要紧”二字只听作“跳井”二字，便笑道：“跳井让他跳去，二爷怕什么？”宝玉见是个聋子，便着急道：“你出去叫我的小厮来罢。”那婆子道：“有什么不了的事？老早的完了。太太又赏了衣服，又赏了银子，怎么不了事的！”

宝玉急的跺脚，正没抓寻处，只见贾政的小厮走来，逼着他出去了。贾政一见，眼都红紫了，也不暇问他在外流荡优伶，表赠私物，在家荒疏学业，淫辱母婢等语，只喝令“堵起嘴来，着实打死！”小厮们不敢违拗，只得将宝玉按在凳上，举起大板打了十来下。贾政犹嫌打轻了，一脚踢开掌板的，自己夺过来，咬着牙狠命盖了三四十下。众门客见打的不祥了，忙上前夺劝。贾政那里肯听，说道：“你们问问他干的勾当可饶不可饶！素日皆是你们这些人把他酿坏了，到这步田地还来解劝。明日酿到他弑君杀父，你们才不劝不成！”

众人听这话不好听，知道气急了，忙又退出，只得觅人进去给信。王夫人不敢先回贾母，只得忙穿衣出来，也不顾有人没人，忙忙赶往书房中来，慌的众门客小厮等避之不及。王夫人一进房来，贾政更如火上浇油一般，那板子越发下去的又狠又快。按宝玉的两个小厮忙松了手走开，宝玉早已动弹不得了。

贾政还欲打时，早被王夫人抱住板子。贾政道：“罢了，罢了！今日必定要气死我才罢！”王夫人哭道：“宝玉虽然该打，老爷也要自重。况且炎天暑日的，老太太身上也不大好，打死宝玉事小，倘或老太太一时不自在了，岂不事大！”贾政冷笑道：“倒休提这话。我养了这不肖的孽障，已不孝；教训他一番，又有众人护持；不如趁今日一发勒死了，以绝将来之患！”说着，便要绳索来勒死。

王夫人连忙抱住哭道：“老爷虽然应当管教儿子，也要看夫妻分上。我如今已将五十岁的人，只有这个孽障，必定苦苦的以他为法，我也不敢深劝。今日越发要他死，岂不是有意绝我。既要勒死他，快拿绳子来先勒死我，再勒死他。我们娘儿们不敢含怨，到底在阴司里得个依靠。”说毕，爬在宝玉身上大哭起来。

贾政听了此话，不觉长叹一声，向椅上坐了，泪如雨下。王夫人抱着宝玉，只见他面白气弱，底下穿着一条绿纱小衣皆是血渍，禁不住解下汗巾看，由臀至胫，或青或紫，或整或破，竟无一点好处，不觉失声大哭起来，“苦命的儿吓！”因哭出“苦命儿”来，忽又想起贾珠来，便叫着贾珠哭道：“若有你活着，便死一百个我也不管了。”此时里面的人闻得王夫人出来，那李宫裁王熙凤与迎春姊妹早已出来了。王夫人哭着贾珠的名字，别人还可，惟有宫裁禁不住也放声哭了。贾政听了，那泪珠更似滚瓜一般滚了下来。

正没开交处，忽听丫鬟来说：“老太太来了。”一句话未了，只听窗外颤巍巍的声气说道：“先打死我，再打死他，岂不干净了！”贾政见他母亲来了，又急又痛，连忙迎接出来，只见贾母扶着丫头，喘吁吁的走来。

贾政上前躬身陪笑道：“大暑热天，母亲有何生气亲自走来？有话只该叫了儿子进去吩咐。”贾母听说，便止住步喘息一回，厉声说道：“你原来是和我说话！我倒有话吩咐，只是可怜我一生没养个好儿子，却叫我和谁说去！”贾政听这话不像，忙跪下含泪说道：“为儿的教训儿子，也为的是光宗耀祖。母亲这话，我做儿的如何禁得起？”贾母听说，便啐了一口，说道：“我说了一句话，你就禁不起，你那样下死手的板子，难道宝玉就禁得起了？你说教训儿子是光宗耀祖，当初你父亲怎么教训你来！”说着，不觉就滚下泪来。

贾政又陪笑道：“母亲也不必伤感，皆是作儿的一时性起，从此以后再不打他了。”贾母便冷笑道：“你也不必和我使性子赌气的。你的儿子，我也不该管你打不打。我猜着你也厌烦我们娘儿们。不如我们赶早儿离了你，大家干净！”说着便令人去看轿马，“我和你太太宝玉立刻回南京去！”家下人只得干答应着。

贾母又叫王夫人道：“你也不必哭了。如今宝玉年纪小，你疼他，他将来长大成人，为官作宰的，也未必想着你是他母亲了。你如今倒不要疼他，只怕将来还少生一口气呢。”贾政听说，忙叩头哭道：“母亲如此说，贾政无立足之地。”贾母冷笑道：“你分明使我无立足之地，你反说起你来！只是我们回去了，你心里干净，看有谁来许你打。”一面说，一面只令快打点行李车轿回去。贾政苦苦叩求认罪。

贾母一面说话，一面又记挂宝玉，忙进来看时，只见今日这顿打不比往日，又是心疼，又是生气，也抱着哭个不了。王夫人与凤姐等解劝了一会，方渐渐的止住。早有丫鬟媳妇等上来，要搀宝玉，凤姐便骂道：“糊涂东西，也不睁开眼瞧瞧！打的这么个样儿，还要搀着走！还不快进去把那藤屉子春凳[12]抬出来呢。”众人听说连忙进去，果然抬出春凳来，将宝玉抬放凳上，随着贾母王夫人等进去，送至贾母房中。

彼时贾政见贾母气未全消，不敢自便，也跟了进去。看看宝玉，果然打重了。再看看王夫人，“儿”一声，“肉”一声，“你替珠儿早死了，留着珠儿，免你父亲生气，我也不白操这半世的心了。这会子你倘或有个好歹，丢下我，叫我靠那一个！”数落一场，又哭“不争气的儿”。贾政听了，也就灰心，自悔不该下毒手打到如此地步。先劝贾母，贾母含泪说道：“你不出去，还在这里做什么！难道于心不足，还要眼看着他死了才去不成！”贾政听说，方退了出来。

此时薛姨妈同宝钗、香菱、袭人、史湘云也都在这里。袭人满心委屈，只不好十分使出来，见众人围着，灌水的灌水，打扇的打扇，自己插不下手去，便越性走出来到二门前，令小厮们找了焙茗来细问：“方才好端端的，为什么打起来？你也不早来透个信儿！”焙茗急的说：“偏生我没在跟前，打到半中间我才听见了。忙打听原故，却是为琪官金钏姐姐的事。”袭人道：“老爷怎么得知道的？”焙茗道：“那琪官的事，多半是薛大爷素日吃醋，没法儿出气，不知在外头唆挑了谁来，在老爷跟前下的火[13]。那金钏儿的事是三爷说的，我也是听见老爷的人说的。”袭人听了这两件事都对景[14]，心中也就信了八九分。然后回来，只见众人都替宝玉疗治。调停完备，贾母令“好生抬到他房内去”。众人答应，七手八脚，忙把宝玉送入怡红院内自己床上卧好。又乱了半日，众人渐渐散去，袭人方进前来经心服侍，问他端的。且听下回分解。

[1] 手足眈眈（dān丹）——兄弟之间虎视眈眈。眈眈：恶意地注视。

[2] 笞挞（chī　tà吃踏）——用棍杖篾板打罚。

〔一〕 “叫你那半天你才出来；既出来了”，原作“那半天你才出来了，既出来”，从各本改。

[4] 长史官——总管王府内事务的官吏。从南朝起始设，其后各代王府都沿设此职。

[5] 擅造潭府——擅自到贵府。潭府，对他人住宅的尊称。潭：深邃的样子。

〔二〕 “长史官”，原系“长府官”点改，戚序、甲辰本作“长史官”，从。下同。

[7] 克夺之权——生杀予夺之权。

[8] 暴殄（tiǎn舔）轻生——暴殄：恣意糟踏。殄：灭绝。轻生：不爱惜生命。

〔三〕 “兴儿来”，原系“兴来”钩乙，梦稿本作“来兴”，馀各本作“兴来”。疑“兴来”二字间漏“儿”字。兴儿，贾琏心腹小厮。

[10] 冠带家私——冠带：帽子和束带，是官服的代称，这里代指官爵。家私：财产，代指家业。

[11] 烦恼鬓毛、干净去处——鬓毛：即头发，佛家称为“烦恼丝”。干净：佛家以为人世污浊不净，唯有佛门才能通向清净世界，即所谓净土。剃去烦恼鬓毛与寻个干净去处，都是出家当和尚的意思。

[12] 藤屉子春凳——春凳：一种面较宽的可坐可卧的长凳。藤屉子：凳面用藤皮编成。

[13] 下的火——挑拨人使发火。

[14] 对景——对得上号；情况符合。

CHAPTER 33. An envious younger brother puts in a malicious word or two And a scapegrace elder brother receives a terrible chastisement

OUR story last told how Golden’s mother was summoned to take away the clothing that Bao-chai had brought for Golden’s laying-out. When she arrived, Lady Wang called her inside, and after making her an additional present of some jewellery, advised her to procure the services of some Buddhist monks to recite a sūtra for the salvation of the dead girl’s soul. Golden’s mother kotowed her thanks and departed with the clothes and jewellery.

The news that Golden’s disgrace had driven her to take her own life had reached Bao-yu as he was returning from his interview with Jia Yu-cun, and he was already in a state of shock when he went in to see his mother, only to be subjected by her to a string of accusations and reproaches, to which he was unable to reply. He availed himself of the opportunity presented by Bao-chai’s arrival to slip quietly out again, and wandered along, scarcely knowing where he was going, still in a state of shock, hands clasped behind him, head down low, and sighing as he went.

Without realizing it he was drifting towards the main reception hall, and was in fact just emerging from behind the screen-wall that masked the gateway leading from the inner to the outer part of the mansion, when he walked head-on into someone coming from the opposite direction.

‘Stand where you are!’ said this person in a harsh voice.

Bao-yu looked up with a start and saw that it was his father. He gave an involuntary gasp of fear and, dropping his hands to his sides, hastily assumed a more deferential posture.

‘Now,’ said Jia Zheng, ‘will you kindly explain the meaning of these sighs and of this moping, hang-dog appearance? You took your time coming when Yu-cun called for you just now, and I gather that when you did eventually vouchsafe your presence, he found you dull and listless and without a lively word to say for yourself. And look at you now – sullenness and secret depravity written all over your face! What are these sighings and groanings supposed to indicate? What have you got to be discontented or displeased about? Come, sir! What is the meaning of this?’

Bao-yu was normally ready enough with his tongue, but on this occasion grief for Golden so occupied his mind (at that moment he would very willingly have changed places with her) that though he heard the words addressed to him by his father, he failed to take in their meaning and merely stared back at him stupidly.

Seeing him too hypnotized by fear – or so it appeared – to answer with his usual promptness, Jia Zheng, who had not been angry to start with, was now well on the way to becoming so; but the irate comment he was about to make was checked when a servant from the outer gate announced that a representative of ‘His Highness the Prince of Zhong-shun’ had arrived.

Jia Zheng was puzzled.

‘The Prince of Zhong-shun?’ he thought. ‘I have never had any dealings with the Prince of Zhong-shun. I wonder why he should suddenly send someone to see me …?’

He told the man to invite the prince’s messenger to sit in the hall, while he himself hurried inside and changed into court dress. On entering the hall to receive his visitor, he found that it was the Prince of Zhong-shun’s chamberlain who had come to see him. After an exchange of bows and verbal salutations, the two men sat down and tea was served. The chamberlain cut short the customary civilities by coming straight to the point.

‘It would have been temerity on my part to have intruded on the leisure of an illustrious scholar in the privacy of his home, but in fact it is not for the purpose of paying a social call that I am here, but on orders from His Highness. His Highness has a small request to make of you. If you will be so good as to oblige him, not only will His Highness be extremely grateful himself, but I and my colleagues will also be very much beholden to you.’

Jia Zheng was totally at a loss to imagine what the purpose of the man’s visit might be; nevertheless he rose to his feet out of respect for the prince and smiled politely.

‘You have orders from His Highness for me? I shall be happy to perform them if you will have the goodness to instruct me.’

‘I don’t think any performing will be necessary,’ said the chamberlain drily. ‘All we want from you is a few words. A young actor called Bijou – a female impersonator – has gone missing from the palace. He hasn’t been back now for four or five days; and though we have looked everywhere we can think of, we can’t make out where he can have got to. However, in the course of the very extensive inquiries we have made both inside and outside the city, eight out of ten of the people we have spoken to say that he has recently been very thick with the young gentleman who was born with the jade in his mouth. Well, obviously we couldn’t come inside here and search as we would have done if this had been anyone else’s house, so we had to go back and report the matter to His Highness; and His Highness says that though he could view the loss of a hundred ordinary actors with equanimity, this Bijou is so skilled in anticipating his wishes and so essential to his peace of mind that it would be utterly impossible for him to dispense with his services. I have therefore come here to request you to ask your son if he will be good enough to let Bijou come back again. By doing so he will not only earn the undying gratitude of the Prince, but will also save me and my colleagues a great deal of tiring and disagreeable searching.’

The chamberlain concluded with a sweeping bow.

Surprised and angered by what he had heard, Jia Zheng immediately sent for Bao-yu, who presently came hurrying in, ignorant of what the reason for his summons might be.

‘Miserable scum!’ said Jia Zheng. ‘It is not enough, apparently, that you should neglect your studies when you are at home. It seems that you must needs go perpetrating enormities outside. This Bijou I have been hearing about is under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Zhong-shun. How could you have the unspeakable effrontery to commit an act of enticement on his person – involving me, incidentally, in the consequences of your wrong-doing?’

The question made Bao-yu start.

‘I honestly know nothing about this,’ he said. ‘I don’t even know who or what “Bijou” is, let alone what you mean by “enticement”.’

Jia Zheng was about to exclaim, but the chamberlain forestalled him.

‘There is really no point in concealment, young gentleman,’ he said coldly. ‘Even if you are not hiding him here, we are sure that you know where he is. In either case you had much better say straight out and save us a lot of trouble. I’d be greatly obliged if you would.’

‘I really don’t know,’ said Bao-yu. ‘You must have been misinformed.’

The chamberlain gave a sardonic laugh.

‘I have, of course, got evidence for what I am saying and I’m afraid you are doing yourself little good by forcing me to mention it in front of your father. You say you don’t know who Bijou is. Very well. Then will you kindly explain how his red cummerbund came to find its way around your waist?’

Bao-yu stared at him open-mouthed, too stunned to reply.

‘If he knows even a private thing like that,’ he thought, ‘there’s little likelihood of my being able to hoodwink him about anything else. I’d better get rid of him as quickly as possible, before he can say any more.’

‘Since you have managed to find out so much about him,’ he said, finding his tongue at last, ‘I’m surprised that so important a thing as buying a house should have escaped you. From what I’ve heard, he recently acquired a little villa and an acre or so of land at Fort Redwood, seven miles east of the walls. I suppose he could be there.’

The chamberlain smiled.

‘If you say so, then no doubt that is where we shall find him. I shall go and look there immediately. If I do find him there, you will hear no more from me; if not, I shall be back again for further instructions.’

So saying, he hurriedly took his leave.

Jia Zheng, his eyes glaring and his mouth contorted with rage, went after the chamberlain to see him out. He turned briefly towards Bao-yu as he was leaving the hall.

‘You stay where you are. I shall deal with you when I get back.’

As he was on his way in again after seeing the chamberlain off the premises, Jia Huan with two or three pages at his heels came stampeding across the courtyard.

‘Hit that boy!’ Jia Zheng shouted, outraged. But Jia Huan, reduced to a quivering jelly of fear by the sight of his father, had already jolted to a halt and was standing with bowed head in front of him.

‘And what is the meaning of this?’ said Jia Zheng. ‘What has become of the people who are supposed to look after you? Why do they allow you to gallop around in this extraordinary fashion?’ His voice rose to a shout: ‘Where are the people responsible for taking this boy to school?’

Jia Huan saw in his father’s anger an opportunity of exercising his malice.

‘I didn’t mean to run, Father, but just as I was going by the well back there I saw the body of a maid who had drowned herself – all swollen up with water, and her head all swollen. It was horrible. I just couldn’t help myself.’

Jia Zheng heard him with incredulous horror.

‘What are you saying? Who has drowned herself? Such a thing has never before happened in our family. Our family has always been lenient and considerate in its treatment of inferiors. It is one of our traditions. I suppose it is because I have been too neglectful of household matters during these last few years. Those in charge have felt encouraged to abuse their authority, until finally an appalling thing like this can happen – an innocent young life cut off by violence. What a terrible disgrace to our ancestors if this should get about!’ He turned and shouted a command.

‘Fetch Jia Lian and Lai Da!’

‘Sir!’ chorused the pages, and were on the point of doing so when Jia Huan impulsively stepped forward, threw himself on his knees and clung to his father’s skirts.

‘Don’t be angry with me, Father, but apart from the servants in Lady Wang’s room, no one else knows anything about this. I heard my mother say —’

He broke off and glanced around behind him. Jia Zheng understood and signalled with his eyes to the pages, who obediently withdrew some distance back to either side of the courtyard. Jia Huan continued in a voice lowered almost to a whisper.

‘My mother told me that the day before yesterday, in Lady Wang’s room, my brother Bao-yu tried to rape one of Her Ladyship’s maids called Golden, and when she wouldn’t let him, he gave her a beating; and Golden was so upset that she threw herself in the well and was drowned —’

Jia Zheng, whose face had now turned to a ghastly gold-leaf colour, interrupted him with a dreadful cry.

‘Fetch Bao-yu!’

He began to stride towards his study, shouting to all and sundry as he went.

‘If anyone tries to stop me this time, I shall make over my house and property and my post at the Ministry and everything else I have to him and Bao-yu. I absolutely refuse to be responsible for the boy any longer. I shall cut off my few remaining hairs (those that worry and wretchedness have left me) and look for some clean and decent spot to end my days in. Perhaps in that way I shall escape the charge of having disgraced my ancestors by rearing this unnatural monster as my son.’

When they saw the state he was in, the literary gentlemen and senior menservants who were waiting for him in the study, guessed that Bao-yu must be the cause of it and, looking at each other with various grimaces, biting their thumbs or sticking their tongues out, hastily retreated from the room. Jia Zheng entered it alone and sat down, stiffly upright, in a chair. He was breathing heavily and his face was bathed in tears. Presently, when he had regained his breath, he barked out a rapid series of commands:

‘Bring Bao-yu here. Get a heavy bamboo. Get some rope to tie him with. Close the courtyard gates. If anyone tries to take word through inside, kill him!’

‘Sir! – Sir! – Sir!’ the terrified pages chorused in unison at each of his commands, and some of them went off to look for Bao-yu.

Jia Zheng’s ominous ‘Stay where you are’ as he went out with the chamberlain had warned Bao-yu that something dire was imminent – though just how much more dire as a result of Jia Huan’s malicious intervention he could not have foreseen – and as he stood where his father had left him, he twisted and turned himself about, anxiously looking for some passer-by who could take a message through to the womenfolk inside. But no one came. Even the omnipresent Tealeaf was on this occasion nowhere to be seen. Then suddenly, in answer to his prayers, an old woman appeared – a darling, precious treasure of an old woman (or so she seemed at that moment) – and he dashed forward and clung to her beseechingly.

‘Quickly!’ he said. ‘Go and tell them that Sir Zheng is going to beat me. Quickly! Quickly! Go and tell. GO AND TELL.’

Partly because agitation had made him incoherent and partly because, as ill luck would have it, the old woman was deaf, almost everything he said had escaped her – except for the ‘Go and tell’, which she misheard as ‘in the well’. She smiled at him reassuringly.

‘Let her jump in the well then, young master. Don’t you worry your pretty head about it!’

Realizing that he had deafness, too, to contend with, he now became quite frantic.

‘GO AND TELL MY PAGES.’

‘Her wages?’ the old woman asked in some surprise. ‘Bless you, of course they paid her wages! Her Ladyship gave a whole lot of money towards the funeral as well. And clothes. Paid her wages, indeed!’

Bao-yu stamped his feet in a frenzy of impatience. He was still wondering despairingly how to make her understand when Jia Zheng’s pages arrived and forced him to go with them to the study.

Jia Zheng turned a pair of wild and bloodshot eyes on him as he entered. Forgetting the ‘riotous and dissipated conduct abroad leading to the unseemly bestowal of impudicities on a theatrical performer’ and the ‘neglect of proper pursuits and studies at home culminating in the attempted violation of a parent’s maidservant’ and all the other high-sounding charges he had been preparing to hurl against him, he shouted two brief orders to the pages.

‘Gag his mouth. Beat him to death.’

The pages were too frightened not to comply. Two held Bao-yu face downwards on a bench while a third lifted up the flattened bamboo sweep and began to strike him with it across the hams. After about a dozen blows Jia Zheng, not satisfied that his executioner was hitting hard enough, kicked him impatiently aside, wrested the bamboo from his grasp, and, gritting his teeth, brought it down with the utmost savagery on the places that had already been beaten.

At this point the literary gentlemen, sensing that Bao-yu was in serious danger of life and limb, came in again to remonstrate; but Jia Zheng refused to hear them.

‘Ask him what he has done and then tell me if you think I should spare him,’ he said. ‘It is the encouragement of people like you that has corrupted him; and now, when things have come to this pass, you intercede for him. I suppose you would like me to wait until he commits parricide, or worse. Would you still intercede for him then?’

They could see from this reply that he was beside himself. Wasting no further time on words, they quickly withdrew and looked for someone to take a message through inside.

Lady Wang did not stop to tell Grandmother Jia when she received it. She snatched up an outer garment, pulled it about her, and, supported by a single maid, rushed off, not caring what menfolk might see her, to the outer study, bursting into it with such suddenness that the literary gentlemen and other males present were unable to avoid her.

Her entry provoked Jia Zheng to fresh transports of fury. Faster and harder fell the bamboo on the prostrate form of Bao-yu, which by now appeared to be unconscious, for when the boys holding it down relaxed their hold and fled from their Mistress’s presence, it had long since ceased even to twitch. Even so Jia Zheng would have continued beating it had not Lady Wang clasped the bamboo to her bosom and prevented him.

‘Enough!’ said Jia Zheng. ‘Today you are determined, all of you, to drive me insane.’

‘No doubt Bao-yu deserved to be beaten,’ said Lady Wang tearfully, ‘but it is bad for you to get over-excited. Besides, you ought to have some consideration for Lady Jia. She is not at all well in this frightful heat. It may not seem to you of much consequence to kill Bao-yu, but think what the effect would be on her.’

‘Don’t try that sort of talk with me!’ said Jia Zheng bitterly. ‘Merely by fathering a monster like this I have proved myself an unfilial son; yet whenever in the past I have tried to discipline him, the rest of you have all conspired against me to protect him. Now that I have the opportunity at last, I may as well finish off what I have begun and put him down, like the vermin he is, before he can do any more damage.’

So saying, he took up a rope and would have put his threat into execution, had not Lady Wang held her arms around him to prevent it.

‘Of course you should discipline your son,’ she said, weeping, ‘but you have a wife too, Sir Zheng, don’t forget. I am nearly fifty now and this wretched boy is the only son I have. If you insist on making an example of him, I dare not do much to dissuade you. But to kill him outright – that is deliberately to make me childless. Better strangle me first, if you are going to strangle him. Let the two of us die together. At least I shall have some support then in the world to come, if all support in this world is to be denied me!’

With these words she threw herself upon Bao-yu’s body and, lifting up her voice, began weeping with noisy abandon. Jia Zheng, who had heard her with a sigh, sank into a chair and himself broke down in a fit of weeping.

Presently Lady Wang began to examine the body she was clasping. Bao-yu’s face was ashen, his breathing was scarcely perceptible, and the trousers of thin green silk which clothed the lower part of his body were so soaked with blood that their colour was no longer recognizable. Feverishly she unfastened his waistband and drew them back. Everywhere, from the upper part of his buttocks down to his calves, was either raw and bloody or purplish black with bruises. Not an inch of sound flesh was to be seen. The sight made her cry out involuntarily.

‘Oh my son! My unfortunate son!’

Once more she broke down into uncontrollable weeping.

Her own words reminded her of the son she had already lost, and now, with added bitterness, she began to call out his name.

‘Oh, Zhu! Zhu! If only you had lived, I shouldn’t have minded losing a hundred other sons!’

By this time news of Lady Wang’s démarche had circulated to the other members of the inner mansion and Li Wan, Xi-feng, Ying-chun, Tan-chun and Xi-chun had come to join her. The invocation of her dead husband’s name, painful to all of them, was altogether too much for Li Wan, who broke into loud sobs on hearing it. Jia Zheng himself was deeply affected, and tears as round as pumpkins rolled down both his cheeks. It was beginning to look as if they might all go on weeping there indefinitely, since no one would make a move; but just then there was a cry of ‘Her Old Ladyship —!’ from one of the maids, interrupted by a quavering voice outside the window.

‘Kill me first! You may as well kill both of us while you are about it!’

As much distressed by his mother’s words as he was alarmed by her arrival, Jia Zheng hurried out to meet her. She was leaning on the shoulder of a little maid, her old head swaying from side to side with the effort of running, and panting as she ran.

Jia Zheng bowed down before her and his face assumed the semblance of a smile.

‘Surely, Mother, in such hot weather as this there is no need for you to come here? If you have any instructions, you should call for me and let me come to you.’

Grandmother Jia had stopped when she heard this voice and now stood panting for some moments while she regained her breath. When she spoke, her voice had an unnatural shrillness in it.

‘Oh! Are you speaking to me? – Yes, as a matter of fact I have got “instructions”, as you put it; but as unfortunately I’ve never had a good son who cares for me, there’s no one I can give them to.’

Wounded in his most sensitive spot, Jia Zheng fell on his knees before her. The voice in which he replied to her was broken with tears.

‘How can I bear it, Mother, if you speak to me like that? What I did to the boy I did for the honour of the family.’

Grandmother Jia spat contemptuously.

‘A single harsh word from me and you start whining that you can’t bear it. How do you think Bao-yu could bear your cruel rod? And you say you’ve been punishing him for the honour of the family, but you just tell me this: did your own father ever punish you in such a way? – I think not.’

She was weeping now herself.

‘Don’t upset yourself, Mother,’ said Jia Zheng, with the same forced smile. ‘I acted too hastily. From now on I’ll never beat him again, if that’s what you wish.’

‘Hoity-toity, keep your temper!’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘He’s your son. If you want to beat him, that’s up to you. If we women are in your way, we’ll leave you alone to get on with it.’ She turned to her attendants. ‘Call my carriage. Your Mistress and I and Bao-yu are going back to Nanking. We shall be leaving immediately.’

The servants made a show of compliance.

‘No need for you to cry,’ she said, turning to Lady Wang. ‘You love Bao-yu now that he’s young, but when he’s grown up and become an important official, he’ll like enough forget that you’re his mother. Much better force yourself not to love him now and save yourself some anguish later on.’

Jia Zheng threw himself forward on his face.

‘Don’t say that, Mother! Don’t reject your own son!’

‘On the contrary,’ said Grandmother Jia, ‘it is you who have rejected me. But don’t worry. When I have gone back to Nanking, there will be no one here to stop you. You can beat away to your heart’s content.’ She turned to the servants.

‘Come on, hurry up with that packing! And get the carriage and horses ready so that we can be on our way.’

Jia Zheng’s kotows were by now describing the whole quarter-circle from perpendicular to ground. But the old lady walked on inside, ignoring him.

From the sight that met her eyes she could tell that this had been no ordinary beating. It filled her with anguish for the sufferer and fresh anger for the man who had inflicted it, and for a long time she clung to the inert form and wept, only gradually calming down under the combined coaxing of Lady Wang, Xi-feng and Li Wan.

At this point several of the maids and womenservants came forward and attempted to raise Bao-yu to his feet.

‘Idiots!’ said Xi-feng. ‘Haven’t you got eyes in your heads? Can’t you see that he’s in no fit state to walk? Go and get that wicker summer-bed from inside and carry him in on that.’

The servants rushed out and presently reappeared carrying a long, narrow couch of woven rattan between them, on to which they lifted Bao-yu. Then, with Grandmother Jia, Lady Wang and the rest of the womenfolk leading the way, they carried him to Grandmother Jia’s apartment and set him down inside it.

Jia Zheng, conscious that his mother’s wrath against him had not abated and unwilling to leave things where they stood, had followed the little procession inside. His eyes travelled from Bao-yu, who, he now saw, really had been beaten very badly, to Lady Wang. She was sobbing bitterly, interspersing her sobs with cries of ‘My child!’ and ‘My son!’. Presently she broke off and began railing at the object of her sorrow: ‘Why couldn’t you have died instead of Zhu? Zhu wouldn’t have made his father angry the way you do and I should have been spared this constant anxiety. What is to become of me if you go away and leave me, too?’ Then, with a cry of ‘Poor, worthless boy!’, she fell once more to weeping. When Jia Zheng heard this, his own heart was softened and he began to wish that he had not beaten the boy quite so savagely. He tried to find words of comfort for his old mother, but she answered him tearfully.

‘A father ought to punish his son if he’s done wrong, but not like that! – Why don’t you go now? Won’t you be content until you’ve seen the boy die under your own eyes?’

Jia Zheng, with flustered deference, withdrew.

By now Aunt Xue, Bao-chai, Caltrop, Aroma and Shi Xiang-yun were there too. Aroma was deeply distressed, but could not show the extent of her feelings in the presence of so many others. Indeed, Bao-yu was so ringed around with people fanning him or forcing water through his lips that there was nothing she could have done for him if she had tried. Feeling somewhat superfluous, she left the apartment and went out to the inner gate, where she asked the pages to look for Tealeaf, so that she could find out what had happened.

‘Why did the Master suddenly beat him like that?’ she asked Tealeaf when he arrived. ‘He hadn’t been doing anything. And why couldn’t you have warned us in time?’

Tealeaf was indignant.

‘I couldn’t help it, I wasn’t there. He was half-way through beating him before I even got to hear about it. I did my best to find out the reason, though. It seems that there were two things the Master was upset about: one was to do with Bijou and the other was to do with Golden.’

‘How did the Master get to know about them?’ said Aroma.

‘Well, the Bijou business he probably knew about indirectly through Mr Xue,’ said Tealeaf. ‘Mr Xue had been feeling very jealous, and it looks as though he may have put someone else up to telling the Master about it out of spite. And Golden he probably heard about from Master Huan – leastways, that’s what the Master’s own people told me.’

The two reasons Tealeaf had given corresponded well enough with Aroma’s own observations, and she was more than half inclined to believe them. Fairly confident, therefore, that she now knew the cause of what had happened, she returned once more to the apartment. The ministrations of those surrounding Bao-yu had by now restored him to full consciousness, and Grandmother Jia was instructing the servants to carry him back to his own room. There was an answering cry and something of a scramble as many willing hands lifted up the cane bed. Then, preceded as before by Grandmother Jia, Lady Wang and the rest, they carried him through into the Garden and back to Green Delights, where they finally got him on to his own bed. After a good deal more bustle they gradually all drifted away and Aroma at last had Bao-yu alone to herself.

But in order to know what happened then, you must refer to the following chapter.