Chapter 12 · Wang Hsi-feng maliciously lays a trap for Chia Jui, under pretence that his affection is reciprocated. Chia T'ien-hsiang gazes at the face of the mirror of Voluptuousness.
engaged in talking with P'ing Erh, when they heard some one announce
that Mr. Jui had come. Lady Feng gave orders that he should be invited
to step in, and Chia Jui perceiving that he had been asked to walk in
was at heart elated at the prospect of seeing her.
With a face beaming with smiles, Lady Feng inquired again and again how
he was; and, with simulated tenderness she further pressed him to take a
seat and urged him to have a cup of tea.
Chia Jui noticed how still more voluptuous lady Feng looked in her
present costume, and, as his eyes burnt with love, "How is it," he
inquired, "that my elder brother Secundus is not yet back?"
"What the reason is I cannot tell," lady Feng said by way of reply.
"May it not be," Chia Jui smilingly insinuated, "that some fair damsel
has got hold of him on the way, and that he cannot brook to tear himself
from her to come home?"
"That makes it plain that there are those among men who fall in love
with any girl they cast their eyes on," hinted lady Feng.
"Your remarks are, sister-in-law, incorrect, for I'm none of this kind!"
Chia Jui explained smirkingly.
"How many like you can there be!" rejoined lady Feng with a sarcastic
smile; "in ten, not one even could be picked out!"
When Chia Jui heard these words, he felt in such high glee that he
rubbed his ears and smoothed his cheeks. "My sister-in-law," he
continued, "you must of course be extremely lonely day after day."
"Indeed I am," observed lady Feng, "and I only wish some one would come
and have a chat with me to break my dull monotony."
"I daily have ample leisure," Chia Jui ventured with a simper, "and
wouldn't it be well if I came every day to dispel your dulness,
sister-in-law?"
"You are simply fooling me," exclaimed lady Feng laughing. "It isn't
likely you would wish to come over here to me?"
"If in your presence, sister-in-law, I utter a single word of falsehood,
may the thunder from heaven blast me!" protested Chia Jui. "It's only
because I had all along heard people say that you were a dreadful
person, and that you cannot condone even the slightest shortcoming
committed in your presence, that I was induced to keep back by fear; but
after seeing you, on this occasion, so chatty, so full of fun and most
considerate to others, how can I not come? were it to be the cause of my
death, I would be even willing to come!"
"You're really a clever person," lady Feng observed sarcastically. "And
oh so much superior to both Chia Jung and his brother! Handsome as their
presence was to look at, I imagined their minds to be full of
intelligence, but who would have thought that they would, after all, be
a couple of stupid worms, without the least notion of human affection!"
The words which Chia Jui heard, fell in so much the more with his own
sentiments, that he could not restrain himself from again pressing
forward nearer to her; and as with eyes strained to give intentness to
his view, he gazed at lady Feng's purse: "What rings have you got on?"
he went on to ask.
"You should be a little more deferential," remonstrated lady Feng in a
low tone of voice, "so as not to let the waiting-maids detect us."
Chia Jui withdrew backward with as much alacrity as if he had received
an Imperial decree or a mandate from Buddha.
"You ought to be going!" lady Feng suggested, as she gave him a smile.
"Do let me stay a while longer," entreated Chia Jui, "you are indeed
ruthless, my sister-in-law."
But with gentle voice did lady Feng again expostulate. "In broad
daylight," she said, "with people coming and going, it is not really
convenient that you should abide in here; so you had better go, and when
it's dark and the watch is set, you can come over, and quietly wait for
me in the corridor on the Eastern side!"
At these words, Chia Jui felt as if he had received some jewel or
precious thing. "Don't make fun of me!" he remarked with vehemence. "The
only thing is that crowds of people are ever passing from there, and how
will it be possible for me to evade detection?"
"Set your mind at ease!" lady Feng advised; "I shall dismiss on leave
all the youths on duty at night; and when the doors, on both sides, are
closed, there will be no one else to come in!"
Chia Jui was delighted beyond measure by the assurance, and with
impetuous haste, he took his leave and went off; convinced at heart of
the gratification of his wishes. He continued, up to the time of dusk, a
prey to keen expectation; and, when indeed darkness fell, he felt his
way into the Jung mansion, availing himself of the moment, when the
doors were being closed, to slip into the corridor, where everything was
actually pitch dark, and not a soul to be seen going backwards or
forwards.
The door leading over to dowager lady Chia's apartments had already been
put under key, and there was but one gate, the one on the East, which
had not as yet been locked. Chia Jui lent his ear, and listened for ever
so long, but he saw no one appear. Suddenly, however, was heard a sound
like "lo teng," and the east gate was also bolted; but though Chia Jui
was in a great state of impatience, he none the less did not venture to
utter a sound. All that necessity compelled him to do was to issue, with
quiet steps, from his corner, and to try the gates by pushing; but they
were closed as firmly as if they had been made fast with iron bolts; and
much though he may, at this juncture, have wished to find his way out,
escape was, in fact, out of the question; on the south and north was one
continuous dead wall, which, even had he wished to scale, there was
nothing which he could clutch and pull himself up by.
This room, besides, was one the interior (of which was exposed) to the
wind, which entered through (the fissure) of the door; and was perfectly
empty and bare; and the weather being, at this time, that of December,
and the night too very long, the northerly wind, with its biting gusts,
was sufficient to penetrate the flesh and to cleave the bones, so that
the whole night long he had a narrow escape from being frozen to death;
and he was yearning, with intolerable anxiety for the break of day, when
he espied an old matron go first and open the door on the East side, and
then come in and knock at the western gate.
Chia Jui seeing that she had turned her face away, bolted out, like a
streak of smoke, as he hugged his shoulders with his hands (from intense
cold.) As luck would have it, the hour was as yet early, so that the
inmates of the house had not all got out of bed; and making his escape
from the postern door, he straightaway betook himself home, running back
the whole way.
Chia Jui's parents had, it must be explained, departed life at an early
period, and he had no one else, besides his grandfather Tai-ju, to take
charge of his support and education. This Tai-ju had, all along,
exercised a very strict control, and would not allow Chia Jui to even
make one step too many, in the apprehension that he might gad about out
of doors drinking and gambling, to the neglect of his studies.
Seeing, on this unexpected occasion, that he had not come home the whole
night, he simply felt positive, in his own mind, that he was certain to
have run about, if not drinking, at least gambling, and dissipating in
houses of the demi-monde up to the small hours; but he never even gave
so much as a thought to the possibility of a public scandal, as that in
which he was involved. The consequence was that during the whole length
of the night he boiled with wrath.
Chia Jui himself, on the other hand, was (in such a state of
trepidation) that he could wipe the perspiration (off his face) by
handfuls; and he felt constrained on his return home, to have recourse
to deceitful excuses, simply explaining that he had been at his eldest
maternal uncle's house, and that when it got dark, they kept him to
spend the night there.
"Hitherto," remonstrated Tai-ju, "when about to go out of doors, you
never ventured to go, on your own hook, without first telling me about
it, and how is it that yesterday you surreptitiously left the house? for
this offence alone you deserve a beating, and how much more for the lie
imposed upon me."
Into such a violent fit of anger did he consequently fly that laying
hands on him, he pulled him over and administered to him thirty or forty
blows with a cane. Nor would he allow him to have anything to eat, but
bade him remain on his knees in the court conning essays; impressing on
his mind that he would not let him off, before he had made up for the
last ten days' lessons.
Chia Jui had in the first instance, frozen the whole night, and, in the
next place, came in for a flogging. With a stomach, besides, gnawed by
the pangs of hunger, he had to kneel in a place exposed to drafts
reading the while literary compositions, so that the hardships he had to
endure were of manifold kinds.
Chia Jui's infamous intentions had at this junction undergone no change;
but far from his thoughts being even then any idea that lady Feng was
humbugging him, he seized, after the lapse of a couple of days, the
first leisure moments to come again in search of that lady.
Lady Feng pretended to bear him a grudge for his breach of faith, and
Chia Jui was so distressed that he tried by vows and oaths (to establish
his innocence.) Lady Feng perceiving that he had, of his own accord,
fallen into the meshes of the net laid for him, could not but devise
another plot to give him a lesson and make him know what was right and
mend his ways.
With this purpose, she gave him another assignation. "Don't go over
there," she said, "to-night, but wait for me in the empty rooms giving
on to a small passage at the back of these apartments of mine. But
whatever you do, mind don't be reckless."
"Are you in real earnest?" Chia Jui inquired.
"Why, who wants to play with you?" replied lady Feng; "if you don't
believe what I say, well then don't come!"
"I'll come, I'll come, yea I'll come, were I even to die!" protested
Chia Jui.
"You should first at this very moment get away!" lady Feng having
suggested, Chia Jui, who felt sanguine that when evening came, success
would for a certainty crown his visit, took at once his departure in
anticipation (of his pleasure.)
During this interval lady Feng hastily set to work to dispose of her
resources, and to add to her stratagems, and she laid a trap for her
victim; while Chia Jui, on the other hand, was until the shades of
darkness fell, a prey to incessant expectation.
As luck would have it a relative of his happened to likewise come on
that very night to their house and to only leave after he had dinner
with them, and at an hour of the day when the lamps had already been
lit; but he had still to wait until his grandfather had retired to rest
before he could, at length with precipitate step, betake himself into
the Jung mansion.
Straightway he came into the rooms in the narrow passage, and waited
with as much trepidation as if he had been an ant in a hot pan. He
however waited and waited, but he saw no one arrive; he listened but not
even the sound of a voice reached his ear. His heart was full of intense
fear, and he could not restrain giving way to surmises and suspicion.
"May it not be," he thought, "that she is not coming again; and that I
may have once more to freeze for another whole night?"
While indulging in these erratic reflections, he discerned some one
coming, looking like a black apparition, who Chia Jui readily concluded,
in his mind, must be lady Feng; so that, unmindful of distinguishing
black from white, he as soon as that person arrived in front of him,
speedily clasped her in his embrace, like a ravenous tiger pouncing upon
its prey, or a cat clawing a rat, and cried: "My darling sister, you
have made me wait till I'm ready to die."
As he uttered these words, he dragged the comer, in his arms, on to the
couch in the room; and while indulging in kisses and protestations of
warm love, he began to cry out at random epithets of endearment.
Not a sound, however, came from the lips of the other person; and Chia
Jui had in the fulness of his passion, exceeded the bounds of timid love
and was in the act of becoming still more affectionate in his
protestations, when a sudden flash of a light struck his eye, by the
rays of which he espied Chia Se with a candle in hand, casting the light
round the place, "Who's in this room?" he exclaimed.
"Uncle Jui," he heard some one on the couch explain, laughing, "was
trying to take liberties with me!"
Chia Jui at one glance became aware that it was no other than Chia Jung;
and a sense of shame at once so overpowered him that he could find
nowhere to hide himself; nor did he know how best to extricate himself
from the dilemma. Turning himself round, he made an attempt to make good
his escape, when Chia Se with one grip clutched him in his hold.
"Don't run away," he said; "sister-in-law Lien has already reported your
conduct to madame Wang; and explained that you had tried to make her
carry on an improper flirtation with you; that she had temporised by
having recourse to a scheme to escape your importunities, and that she
had imposed upon you in such a way as to make you wait for her in this
place. Our lady was so terribly incensed, that she well-nigh succumbed;
and hence it is that she bade me come and catch you! Be quick now and
follow me, and let us go and see her."
After Chia Jui had heard these words, his very soul could not be
contained within his body.
"My dear nephew," he entreated, "do tell her that it wasn't I; and I'll
show you my gratitude to-morrow in a substantial manner."
"Letting you off," rejoined Chia Se, "is no difficult thing; but how
much, I wonder, are you likely to give? Besides, what you now utter with
your lips, there will be no proof to establish; so you had better write
a promissory note."
"How could I put what happened in black and white on paper?" observed
Chia Jui.
"There's no difficulty about that either!" replied Chia Se; "just write
an account of a debt due, for losses in gambling, to some one outside;
for payment of which you had to raise funds, by a loan of a stated
number of taels, from the head of the house; and that will be all that
is required."
"This is, in fact, easy enough!" Chia Jui having added by way of answer;
Chia Se turned round and left the room; and returning with paper and
pencils, which had been got ready beforehand for the purpose, he bade
Chia Jui write. The two of them (Chia Jung and Chia Se) tried, the one
to do a good turn, and the other to be perverse in his insistence; but
(Chia Jui) put down no more than fifty taels, and appended his
signature.
Chia Se pocketed the note, and endeavoured subsequently to induce Chia
Jung to come away; but Chia Jung was, at the outset, obdurate and
unwilling to give in, and kept on repeating; "To-morrow, I'll tell the
members of our clan to look into your nice conduct!"
These words plunged Chia Jui in such a state of dismay, that he even
went so far as to knock his head on the ground; but, as Chia Se was
trying to get unfair advantage of him though he had at first done him a
good turn, he had to write another promissory note for fifty taels,
before the matter was dropped.
Taking up again the thread of the conversation, Chia Se remarked, "Now
when I let you go, I'm quite ready to bear the blame! But the gate at
our old lady's over there is already bolted, and Mr. Chia Cheng is just
now engaged in the Hall, looking at the things which have arrived from
Nanking, so that it would certainly be difficult for you to pass through
that way. The only safe course at present is by the back gate; but if
you do go by there, and perchance meet any one, even I will be in for a
mess; so you might as well wait until I go first and have a peep, when
I'll come and fetch you! You couldn't anyhow conceal yourself in this
room; for in a short time they'll be coming to stow the things away, and
you had better let me find a safe place for you."
These words ended, he took hold of Chia Jui, and, extinguishing again
the lantern, he brought him out into the court, feeling his way up to
the bottom of the steps of the large terrace. "It's safe enough in this
nest," he observed, "but just squat down quietly and don't utter a
sound; wait until I come back before you venture out."
Having concluded this remark, the two of them (Chia Se and Chia Jung)
walked away; while Chia Jui was, all this time, out of his senses, and
felt constrained to remain squatting at the bottom of the terrace
stairs. He was about to consider what course was open for him to adopt,
when he heard a noise just over his head; and, with a splash, the
contents of a bucket, consisting entirely of filthy water, was emptied
straight down over him from above, drenching, as luck would have it, his
whole person and head.
Chia Jui could not suppress an exclamation. "Ai ya!" he cried, but he
hastily stopped his mouth with his hands, and did not venture to give
vent to another sound. His whole head and face were a mass of filth, and
his body felt icy cold. But as he shivered and shook, he espied Chia Se
come running. "Get off," he shouted, "with all speed! off with you at
once!"
As soon as Chia Jui returned to life again, he bolted with hasty
strides, out of the back gate, and ran the whole way home. The night had
already reached the third watch, so that he had to knock at the door for
it to be opened.
"What's the matter?" inquired the servants, when they saw him in this
sorry plight; (an inquiry) which placed him in the necessity of making
some false excuse. "The night was dark," he explained, "and my foot
slipped and I fell into a gutter."
Saying this, he betook himself speedily to his own apartment; and it was
only after he had changed his clothes and performed his ablutions, that
he began to realise that lady Feng had made a fool of him. He
consequently gave way to a fit of wrath; but upon recalling to mind the
charms of lady Feng's face, he felt again extremely aggrieved that he
could not there and then clasp her in his embrace, and as he indulged in
these wild thoughts and fanciful ideas, he could not the whole night
long close his eyes.
From this time forward his mind was, it is true, still with lady Feng,
but he did not have the courage to put his foot into the Jung mansion;
and with Chia Jung and Chia Se both coming time and again to dun him for
the money, he was likewise full of fears lest his grandfather should
come to know everything.
His passion for lady Feng was, in fact, already a burden hard to bear,
and when, moreover, the troubles of debts were superadded to his tasks,
which were also during the whole day arduous, he, a young man of about
twenty, as yet unmarried, and a prey to constant cravings for lady Feng,
which were difficult to gratify, could not avoid giving way, to a great
extent, to such evil habits as exhausted his energies. His lot had, what
is more, been on two occasions to be frozen, angered and to endure much
hardship, so that with the attacks received time and again from all
sides, he unconsciously soon contracted an organic disease. In his heart
inflammation set in; his mouth lost the sense of taste; his feet got as
soft as cotton from weakness; his eyes stung, as if there were vinegar
in them. At night, he burnt with fever. During the day, he was
repeatedly under the effects of lassitude. Perspiration was profuse,
while with his expectorations of phlegm, he brought up blood. The whole
number of these several ailments came upon him, before the expiry of a
year, (with the result that) in course of time, he had not the strength
to bear himself up. Of a sudden, he would fall down, and with his eyes,
albeit closed, his spirit would be still plunged in confused dreams,
while his mouth would be full of nonsense and he would be subject to
strange starts.
Every kind of doctor was asked to come in, and every treatment had
recourse to; and, though of such medicines as cinnamon, aconitum seeds,
turtle shell, ophiopogon, Yü-chü herb, and the like, he took several
tens of catties, he nevertheless experienced no change for the better;
so that by the time the twelfth moon drew once again to an end, and
spring returned, this illness had become still more serious.
Tai-ju was very much concerned, and invited doctors from all parts to
attend to him, but none of them could do him any good. And as later on,
he had to take nothing else but decoctions of pure ginseng, Tai-ju could
not of course afford it. Having no other help but to come over to the
Jung mansion, and make requisition for some, Madame Wang asked lady Feng
to weigh two taels of it and give it to him. "The other day," rejoined
lady Feng, "not long ago, when we concocted some medicine for our
dowager lady, you told us, madame, to keep the pieces that were whole,
to present to the spouse of General Yang to make physic with, and as it
happens it was only yesterday that I sent some one round with them."
"If there's none over here in our place," suggested madame Wang, "just
send a servant to your mother-in-law's, on the other side, to inquire
whether they have any. Or it may possibly be that your elder
brother-in-law Chen, over there, might have a little. If so, put all you
get together, and give it to them; and when he shall have taken it, and
got well and you shall have saved the life of a human being, it will
really be to the benefit of you all."
Lady Feng acquiesced; but without directing a single person to institute
any search, she simply took some refuse twigs, and making up a few mace,
she despatched them with the meagre message that they had been sent by
madame Wang, and that there was, in fact, no more; subsequently
reporting to madame Wang that she had asked for and obtained all there
was and that she had collected as much as two taels, and forwarded it to
them.
Chia Jui was, meanwhile, very anxious to recover his health, so that
there was no medicine that he would not take, but the outlay of money
was of no avail, for he derived no benefit.
On a certain day and at an unexpected moment, a lame Taoist priest came
to beg for alms, and he averred that he had the special gift of healing
diseases arising from grievances received, and as Chia Jui happened,
from inside, to hear what he said, he forthwith shouted out: "Go at
once, and bid that divine come in and save my life!" while he
reverentially knocked his head on the pillow.
The whole bevy of servants felt constrained to usher the Taoist in; and
Chia Jui, taking hold of him with a dash, "My Buddha!" he repeatedly
cried out, "save my life!"
The Taoist heaved a sigh. "This ailment of yours," he remarked, "is not
one that could be healed with any medicine; I have a precious thing here
which I'll give you, and if you gaze at it every day, your life can be
saved!"
When he had done talking, he produced from his pouch a looking-glass
which could reflect a person's face on the front and back as well. On
the upper part of the back were engraved the four characters: "Precious
Mirror of Voluptuousness." Handing it over to Chia Jui: "This object,"
he proceeded, "emanates from the primordial confines of the Great Void
and has been wrought by the Monitory Dream Fairy in the Palace of
Unreality and Spirituality, with the sole intent of healing the
illnesses which originate from evil thoughts and improper designs.
Possessing, as it does, the virtue of relieving mankind and preserving
life, I have consequently brought it along with me into the world, but I
only give it to those intelligent preëminent and refined princely men to
set their eyes on. On no account must you look at the front side; and
you should only gaze at the back of it; this is urgent, this is
expedient! After three days, I shall come and fetch it away; by which
time, I'm sure, it will have made him all right."
These words finished, he walked away with leisurely step, and though all
tried to detain him, they could not succeed.
Chia Jui received the mirror. "This Taoist," he thought, "would seem to
speak sensibly, and why should I not look at it and try its effect?" At
the conclusion of these thoughts, he took up the Mirror of
Voluptuousness, and cast his eyes on the obverse side; but upon
perceiving nought else than a skeleton standing in it, Chia Jui
sustained such a fright that he lost no time in covering it with his
hands and in abusing the Taoist. "You good-for-nothing!" he exclaimed,
"why should you frighten me so? but I'll go further and look at the
front and see what it's like."
While he reflected in this manner, he readily looked into the face of
the mirror, wherein he caught sight of lady Feng standing, nodding her
head and beckoning to him. With one gush of joy, Chia Jui felt himself,
in a vague and mysterious manner, transported into the mirror, where he
held an affectionate tête-à-tête with lady Feng. Lady Feng escorted him
out again. On his return to bed, he gave vent to an exclamation of "Ai
yah!" and opening his eyes, he turned the glass over once more; but
still, as hitherto, stood the skeleton in the back part.
Chia Jui had, it is true, experienced all the pleasant sensations of a
tête-à-tête, but his heart nevertheless did not feel gratified; so that
he again turned the front round, and gazed at lady Feng, as she still
waved her hand and beckoned to him to go. Once more entering the mirror,
he went on in the same way for three or four times, until this occasion,
when just as he was about to issue from the mirror, he espied two
persons come up to him, who made him fast with chains round the neck,
and hauled him away. Chia Jui shouted. "Let me take the mirror and I'll
come along." But only this remark could he utter, for it was forthwith
beyond his power to say one word more. The servants, who stood by in
attendance, saw him at first still holding the glass in his hand and
looking in, and then, when it fell from his grasp, open his eyes again
to pick it up, but when at length the mirror dropped, and he at once
ceased to move, they in a body came forward to ascertain what had
happened to him. He had already breathed his last. The lower part of his
body was icy-cold; his clothes moist from profuse perspiration. With all
promptitude they changed him there and then, and carried him to another
bed.
Tai-ju and his wife wept bitterly for him, to the utter disregard of
their own lives, while in violent terms they abused the Taoist priest.
"What kind of magical mirror is it?" they asked. "If we don't destroy
this glass, it will do harm to not a few men in the world!"
Having forthwith given directions to bring fire and burn it, a voice was
heard in the air to say, "Who told you to look into the face of it? You
yourselves have mistaken what is false for what is true, and why burn
this glass of mine?"
Suddenly the mirror was seen to fly away into the air; and when Tai-ju
went out of doors to see, he found no one else than the limping Taoist,
shouting, "Who is he who wishes to destroy the Mirror of
Voluptuousness?" While uttering these words, he snatched the glass, and,
as all eyes were fixed upon him, he moved away lissomely, as if swayed
by the wind.
Tai-ju at once made preparations for the funeral and went everywhere to
give notice that on the third day the obsequies would commence, that on
the seventh the procession would start to escort the coffin to the Iron
Fence Temple, and that on the subsequent day, it would be taken to his
original home.
Not much time elapsed before all the members of the Chia family came, in
a body, to express their condolences. Chia She, of the Jung Mansion,
presented twenty taels, and Chia Cheng also gave twenty taels. Of the
Ning Mansion, Chia Chen likewise contributed twenty taels. The remainder
of the members of the clan, of whom some were poor and some rich, and
not equally well off, gave either one or two taels, or three or four,
some more, some less. Among strangers, there were also contributions,
respectively presented by the families of his fellow-scholars,
amounting, likewise, collectively to twenty or thirty taels.
The private means of Tai-ju were, it is true, precarious, but with the
monetary assistance he obtained, he anyhow performed the funeral rites
with all splendour and éclat.
But who would have thought it, at the close of winter of this year, Lin
Ju-hai contracted a serious illness, and forwarded a letter, by some
one, with the express purpose of fetching Lin Tai-yü back. These
tidings, when they reached dowager lady Chia, naturally added to the
grief and distress (she already suffered), but she felt compelled to
make speedy preparations for Tai-yü's departure. Pao-yü too was
intensely cut up, but he had no alternative but to defer to the
affection of father and daughter; nor could he very well place any
hindrance in the way.
Old lady Chia, in due course, made up her mind that she would like Chia
Lien to accompany her, and she also asked him to bring her back again
along with him. But no minute particulars need be given of the manifold
local presents and of the preparations, which were, of course,
everything that could be wished for in excellence and perfectness.
Forthwith the day for starting was selected, and Chia Lien, along with
Lin Tai-yü, said good-bye to all the members of the family, and,
followed by their attendants, they went on board their boats, and set
out on their journey for Yang Chou.
But, Reader, should you have any wish to know fuller details, listen to
the account given in the subsequent Chapter.