Chapter 33
A Jealous Younger Brother Tells Tales
A Worthless Son Receives
a Fearful Flogging
Lady Wang, having summoned Jinchuan’s mother and given her some trinkets, issued orders then and there for monks to be called in to say masses for the dead girl. Then the mother kowtowed her thanks and left the house.
Now Baoyu, on his return from seeing Yucun, had been cut to the heart by the news that her disgrace had driven Jinchuan to suicide. He had nothing to say in reply to his mother’s scolding, but Baochai’s arrival gave him a chance to slip out. He wandered aimlessly along, his hands behind his back, hanging his head and sighing, until he found himself by the front hall. He was skirting the door-screen when as ill luck would have it he bumped full tilt into someone who shouted to him to stop.
Baoyu started and, looking up, saw to his dismay that it was no other than his father. He had to stand aside respectfully, gasping with fright.
“Why are you moping like this?” demanded Jia Zheng. “It took you a long time to come out when Yucun asked for you; and when you did come, you had nothing spirited or cheerful to say but looked quite down in the mouth, the picture of gloom. And now you’re sighing again. What have you to moan about? Is anything wrong? Why are you carrying on in this way?”
Baoyu normally had a ready tongue, but now he was so distressed by Jinchuan’s death that he wished he could follow her straight to the other world. He heard not a word his father said but just stood there in a daze. His stupefied silence — so unlike Baoyu — exasperated Jia Zheng, who had not to begin with been angry. Before he could say more, however, an officer from the household of Prince Zhongshun was announced.
Somewhat taken aback Jia Zheng wondered what this meant, for in general they had no dealings with this prince. He ordered the man to be shown in at once and, hurrying to meet him, found that it was the chief steward of the prince’s household. He hastily offered him a seat in the reception hall and tea was served.
The chief steward did not beat about the bush.
“Excuse the presumption of this intrusion,” he said. “I come at the order of the prince to request a favour. If you, my lord, will grant it, His Highness will remember your kindness and I shall be infinitely indebted to you.
More mystified than ever, Jia Zheng rose to his feet with a smile.
“What instructions have you for me, sir, from the prince?” he asked. “I beg to be enlightened so that I may do my best to carry them out.”
The chief steward gave a faint smile.
“There is no need for you, my lord, to do more than say one word,” he answered. “There is in our palace an actor by the name of Qiguan, who plays female roles. He had never previously given any trouble, but several days ago he disappeared. After searching the city for him without success, we instituted careful inquiries. We are told by eight out of every ten persons questioned that he has recently been on the closest terms with your esteemed son who was born with jade in his mouth. Of course, we could not seize him from your honourable mansion as if it were an ordinary household. So we reported the matter to His Highness, who says he would rather lose a hundred other actors than Qiguan, for this clever well-behaved lad is such a favourite with our master’s father that he cannot do without him. I beg you, therefore, to ask your noble son to send Qiguan back, in compliance with the prince’s earnest request and to save me from wearing myself out in a fruitless search.”
He concluded this speech with a bow.
Alarmed and scandalized, Jia Zheng summoned Baoyu, who hurried in without knowing why he was wanted.
“You scoundrel!” thundered his father. “Not content with shirking your studies at home, you commit such wicked crimes outside! Qiguan is in the service of Prince Zhongshun; how dare a wretch like you lure him away and bring calamity on me?”
Baoyu on hearing this was consternated.
“I know nothing about it,” he cried. “I’ve never even heard the name Qiguan, let alone lured him away.
He burst into tears.
Before Jia Zheng could speak again the chief steward said with a sardonic smile:
“It is useless to keep it a secret, sir. Tell us whether he is hiding here or where else he has gone. A prompt avowal will save us trouble and win you our gratitude.”
Still Baoyu denied any knowledge of the matter.
“You may have been misinformed, I’m afraid,” he muttered.
The steward gave a scornful laugh.
“Why deny it when we have proof? What good can it do you to force me to speak out before your noble father? If you never heard of this actor, how is it that you wear his red sash round your waist?”
Baoyu was thunderstruck and stood aghast. “How did they find out?” he wondered. “If they’ve even found out such secrets, it’s not much use trying to keep the rest from them. Better send him off before he does any more blabbing.”
So he said, “If you know so much, sir, how is it you are ignorant of something as important as his purchase of property? I am told that twenty li to the east of the city, in a place called Sandalwood Castle, he has bought a house and a few mu of land. I should think he might possibly be there.”
The chief steward’s face brightened.
“He must be there if you say so. I shall go and investigate. If we find him, well and good. If not, we shall come back for further enlightenment.”
He took a hasty leave.
Jia Zheng’s eyes were nearly bursting from his head with rage. As he followed the chief steward out, he turned to order Baoyu:
“Stay where you are. I shall deal with you presently.”
He escorted the steward all the way to the gate, and was just starting back when he saw Jia Huan racing past with a few pages. In his fury he ordered his own pages to beat them.
The sight of his father paralysed Huan with fright. He pulled up short, hanging his head.
“What are you rushing about for?” demanded Jia Zheng. “Where are all the people supposed to look after you? Have they gone off to amuse themselves while you run wild?”
As he shouted for the servants who accompanied Huan to school, the boy saw a chance to divert his father’s anger.
“I wasn’t running to begin with,” he said. “Not until I passed the well where that maid drowned herself. Her head’s swollen up like this, and her body’s all bloated from soaking in the water. It was such a horrible sight that I ran away as fast as ever I could.”
Jia Zheng was astounded.
“What maid here had any reason to throw herself into a well?” he wondered. “Such a thing has never happened before in this house. Since the time of our ancestors we have always treated our subordinates well. Of late, though, I’ve neglected household affairs and those in charge must have abused their power, resulting in this calamitous suicide. If word of this gets out, it will disgrace our ancestors’ good name.”
He called for Jia Lian, Lai Da and Lai Xing.
Some pages were going to fetch them when Huan stepped forward and caught hold of his father’s gown, then fell on his knees.
“Don’t be angry, sir!” he begged. “No one knows about this except those in my lady’s apartment. I heard my mother say….”
He stopped and looked around, and Jia Zheng understood. At a glance from him the servants on both sides withdrew.
“My mother told me,” Huan went on in a whisper, “that the other day Brother Baoyu grabbed hold of Jinchuan in my lady’s room and tried to rape her. When she wouldn’t let him, he beat her. That’s why she drowned herself in a fit of passion.”
Before he had finished Jia Zheng was livid with fury.
“Fetch Baoyu! Quick!” he roared.
He strode to his study fuming, “If anybody tries to stop me this time, I’ll make over to him my official insignia and property and let him serve Baoyu! How can I escape blame? I’ll shave off these few remaining hairs and retire to a monastery, there to atone for disgracing my ancestors by begetting such a monster.”
His secretaries and attendants bit their lips or fingers in dismay and hastily withdrew as they heard him raging at Baoyu again. Then Jia Zheng, panting hard, his cheeks wet with tears, sat stiffly erect in his chair.
“Bring Baoyu in!” he bellowed. “Fetch the heavy rod! Tie him up! Close all the doors. Anyone who sends word to the inner apartments will be killed on the spot.”
The servants had to obey. Some pages went to fetch Baoyu.
Baoyu knew he was in for trouble when ordered by his father to wait, but he had no idea of the tale Huan had since told. He paced helplessly up and down the hall, wishing someone would carry the news to the inner apartments; but it so happened that nobody was about – even Beiming had disappeared. As he was looking round anxiously, an old nanny finally appeared. He seized on her as if she were a treasure.
“Go in quick!” he cried. “Tell them the master’s going to beat me. Do hurry! This is urgent!”
He was too terrified to speak distinctly and the old woman, being hard of hearing, mistook the word “urgent” for “drowning.”
“She chose drowning herself,” she told him soothingly. “What does it matter to you?”
Her deafness made Baoyu frantic.
“Go and get my page to come,” he begged.
“It’s over now. Over and done with. And the mistress has given them clothes and silver too. Don’t fret.”
Baoyu was stamping his foot in desperation when his father’s servants arrived and he had perforce to go with them.
Jia Zheng’s eyes blazed at the sight of him. He did not even ask his son what he meant by playing about outside and exchanging gifts with actors, or by neglecting his studies at home and attempting to rape his mother’s maid.
“Gag him!” he roared. “Beat him to death!”
The attendants dared not disobey. They thrust Baoyu down on a bench and gave him a dozen strokes with the heavy rod. His father, thinking these strokes too light, kicked aside the man with the rod and snatched it up himself. With clenched teeth he rained down dozens of vicious blows until his secretaries, foreseeing serious consequences, stepped forward to intervene. But Jia Zheng refused to listen.
“Ask him if such conduct as his can be pardoned,” he cried. “You’re the ones who’ve been spoiling him. When it comes to this do you still intercede for him? Will you still persist when he commits regicide or parricide?”
Realizing from this tirade that their master was quite beside himself with rage, they hurried away, feeling constrained to send word to the inner apartments. Lady Wang dared not tell her mother-in-law at once. Having dressed in haste she ran towards the study, regardless of who was about, while men-servants and secretaries fled out of her way in confusion.
His wife’s arrival roused Jia Zheng to still greater fury and he belaboured his son yet more mercilessly. The two servants holding Baoyu instantly withdrew, but the boy was already incapable of moving. Before his father could beat him any further, Lady Wang seized the rod with both hands.
“This is the end!” roared Jia Zheng. “You’re determined to be the death of me today.”
“I know Baoyu deserves a beating,” sobbed Lady Wang. “But you mustn’t wear yourself out, sir. It’s a sweltering day and the old lady isn’t well. Killing Baoyu is a small matter, but should anything happen to the old lady that would be serious.”
“Spare me this talk.” Jia Zheng gave a scornful laugh. “I’ve already proved an unfilial son by begetting this degenerate. When I discipline him all of you protect him. I’d better strangle him now to avoid further trouble.”
With that he called for a rope. Lady Wang hastily threw her arms around him.
“You’re right to chastise your son, sir, but have pity on your wife!” she cried. “I’m getting on for fifty and this wretch is my only son. If you insist on making an example of him, how dare I dissuade you? But if you kill him today, it means you want me to die too. If strangle him you must, take this rope and strangle me first, then strangle him. Mother and son, we won’t dare hold it against you, and at least I shall have some support in the nether world.”
She threw herself down on Baoyu and gave way to a storm of weeping.
Jia Zheng heaved a long sigh and sat down, his tears falling like rain.
Lady Wang, clasping Baoyu in her arms, saw that his face was white, his breathing weak, and his green linen underclothes were soaked with blood. When she undid them she cried out in distress at the sight of his buttocks and legs beaten black and blue, with every inch bruised or bleeding. “Ah, my poor child!” she wailed.
As she wept for her “poor child” she remembered her first son and called Jia Zhu’s name.
“If you were still living,” she sobbed, “I shouldn’t care if a hundred others died.”
Lady Wang’s departure had roused the inner apartments, and she had been joined by Li Wan and Xifeng as well as Yingchun and Tanchun. Jia Zhu’s name did not affect the others so much, but it reduced his widow to sobs. And the chorus of lamentation made Jia Zheng weep more bitterly himself.
In the middle of this commotion a maid suddenly announced, “The old lady is coming!”
And they heard her quavering voice outside the window, “Kill me first and then kill him. That will be a clean sweep.
Jia Zheng rose in dismay and distress to greet his mother, who entered on a maid’s arm, gasping for breath. At once he stepped forward to bow respectfully.
“Why should you vex yourself, mother, and come over on such a hot day? If you have any instructions, just send for your son.”
The Lady Dowager halted to catch her breath.
“Were you addressing me?” she demanded sternly. “Yes, I have some instructions. The pity is I’ve borne no filial son to whom I can speak.”
Appalled by this rebuke, Jia Zheng fell on his knees, tears in his eyes.
“If your son disciplines his son, it is for the honour of our ancestors,” he pleaded. “How can I bear your reproaches?”
The Lady Dowager spat in disgust.
“So you can’t bear one word from me, eh? Then how does Baoyu bear your lethal rod? You talk of disciplining your son for the honour of your ancestors, but how did your father discipline you in the past?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Don’t grieve, mother,” he begged. “I was wrong to lose my temper. I shall never beat him again.”
The old lady snorted.
“You needn’t try to work off your rage on me. It’s not for me to stop you beating your son. I suppose you’re tired of us all, and we’d better leave now to save trouble all round.”
She ordered the servants to prepare sedan-chairs and horses, telling them, “Your mistress and Baoyu are going back to Nanjing with me this instant.”
The attendants had to make a show of complying with her orders. Then the Lady Dowager turned to her daughter-in-law.
“Don’t cry,” she urged Lady Wang. “Baoyu’s still a child now and you love him; but when he grows up and becomes a high official he may not have any consideration for his mother either. Better not be too fond of him now if you want to avoid heartache later.”
When Jia Zheng heard this he knocked his head on the floor.
“What place is there for me on earth, mother,” he wailed, “if you reproach me like this?”
The Lady Dowager smiled sarcastically.
“You’re making it clear that there’s no place for me, and yet you start complaining. We are simply going away to save you trouble and leave you free to beat anyone you please.”
She ordered attendants to pack up at once and make ready for the journey, while Jia Zheng kowtowed and earnestly begged her forgiveness.
But while storming at her son the old lady was worried about her grandson, and now she hurried over to look at the boy. She was further pained and enraged by the severity of his flogging today. Clasping him to her she wept bitterly. Lady Wang and Xifeng were hard put to it to soothe her. Then some of the maids who had assembled there took Baoyu’s arms, meaning to help him out.
“Stupid creatures!” scolded Xifeng. “Have you no eyes? He’s in no state to walk. Go and fetch that wicker couch.”
They hastily did as they were told. Baoyu was laid on the couch and carried to the old lady’s room accompanied by his grandmother and mother. As the Lady Dowager was still incensed Jia Zheng dared not
withdraw but followed them, aware from a glance at Baoyu that this time he had flogged him too severely. He turned to his wife, who was now lamenting even more bitterly.
“My child, my darling!” she wailed. “Why didn’t you die as a baby in Zhu’s place? Then your father wouldn’t be so angry, and all my trouble wouldn’t have been in vain. If anything happens to you now I shall be left all alone, with no one to depend on in my old age!”
These lamentations interspersed with reproaches against her “worthless son” dismayed Jia Zheng and made him repent that he had beaten Baoyu so mercilessly. But when he tried to mollify his mother she rounded on him with tears in her eyes.
“Why don’t you leave us? What are you hanging around for? Won’t you be satisfied until you’ve made sure that he dies?”
Then Jia Zheng was forced to withdraw.
By now Aunt Xue, Baochai, Xiangling, Xiren and Xiangyun had gathered there too. Xiren was simmering with indignation which she could not express outright. And since Baoyu was surrounded by people, some giving him water to drink, some fanning him, there seemed nothing for her to do. She therefore slipped out and went to the inner gate, where she told some pages to go and fetch Beiming.
“There was no sign of trouble earlier on. How did this start?” she asked him. “And why didn’t you come to report it earlier?”
“It just happened that I wasn’t there,” explained Beiming frantically. “I only heard about it half-way through the beating. At once I asked people how the trouble had started. It was over the business of Qiguan and Sister Jinchuan.”
“How did the master come to hear about it?”
“In the case of Qiguan, it looks as if Master Xue Pan was behind it. Having no other way to vent his jealous spite, he got somebody from outside to come and tell His Lordship – then the fat was in the fire. As for Jinchuan, it was young Master Huan who blabbed. Or so His Lordship’s men told me.”
Both stories seemed likely and Xiren was convinced. She went back to find everyone ministering to Baoyu. When there was no more to be done for him, the Lady Dowager ordered them to carry him carefully back to his own room. All lent a hand to convey him to Happy Red Court, where they laid him on his own bed. And after some further bustle the others gradually dispersed, leaving Xiren able at last to wait on him hand and foot.
The next chapter tells how Baoyu answered her questions.