A Flower’s Shade (19 page)

Miss Yu followed Xiaoyun onto the walkway. There was no one beneath the building now, and only a wisteria was in luxurious bloom at the corner of the wall. Xiaoyun sniffed the air and said, "There's a smell of rot all around here. There's this smell of rot everywhere in this Zhen Estate, haven't you noticed it, my lady?"

Apparently, Miss Yu had become used to these needling words, for though she was a little angered and a little irritated, she did not wish to start an argument with Xiaoyun. She said, "Since you hate the Zhen Estate so much, why do you keep hanging around here? Weren't you at school for five years, didn't you see the wide world? So why did you come back?" Xiaoyun snickered, "It's a good question, I've asked myself the same thing. It's pretty shameless to have come back to the Estate. What am I doing here?"

Xiaoyun left the walkway and went back into the room, where he looked silently at Miss Yu's calligraphy. "How is my calligraphy?" Miss Yu asked with some satisfaction as she followed him. "Not much good." Xiaoyun said vaguely, which instantly cut short her excitement. Seeing that she was displeased, he said, "Not that I know anything about calligraphy." Miss Yu, pouting, said, "Since you don't know anything about calligraphy, why shoot your mouth off about it?" Xiaoyun couldn't suppress a laugh. Miss Yu continued, "What are you laughing at? It's true, after all."

After a moment, Xiaoyun laughed and said, "You're right. I'm the same as you, I like to shoot my mouth off." He moved towards the bookshelf as he spoke, taking one copybook after another to look at. He suddenly discovered that one shelf contained a large number of erotic prints. It was in no way strange that these things should be found in the Mystery Chambers. What surprised Xiaoyun was rather that all the rumors had proven true, one after another. Looking at the pictures, exquisitely printed and bound, Xiaoyun seemed to catch a glimpse of the past glories of the Mystery Chambers.

"There really are all kinds of nice things here." Xiaoyun said mockingly, casually leafing through one book after another, "And do you often look at these?" The question embarrassed Miss Yu, who now felt that inviting Xiaoyun into the Mystery Chambers had been a great error in judgment. She scowled and warned him, "Don't just flip through them at random like that!"

So Xiaoyun deliberately examined the prints more carefully. He flipped to a page that Miss Yu had once taken back with her for careful examination, and opened it with considerable interest. The print, overflowing with eroticism, struck him as somehow absurd. Miss Yu moved towards him rather angrily, meaning to confiscate the picture. But Xiaoyun refused to let go, and instead yanked the picture back with a forceful tug. Miss Yu had not thought he would be so unreasonable, she took fright, and one end of the print snapped and fell to the ground. Xiaoyun pulled at it, like this was some kind of dance, and mischievously flung the print into the air. The long album pages danced through the air like a dragon. Miss Yu was furious. She raised her hand and struck him hard in the face.

With a crack, Xiaoyun's dark glasses went flying onto the ground, the lens shattering. Xiaoyun slowly bent over and picked up the glasses that were so important to him, looked at them wordlessly, and then put them on again. Because there was now only one lens in the glasses, Xiaoyun looked utterly ridiculous. Of course, Miss Yu had infuriated him, and he glared at her in fury. Miss Yu looked at the dark glasses with only one lens in amused mockery. Xiaoyun looked at her motionlessly and with an air of great injustice.

Miss Yu picked up the brush on the table, and dabbed it in the ink that remained on the inkstone. Over the eye, where the lens had broken, she drew a black circle. Xiaoyun stood motionless, like a scowling statue, and did not prevent Miss Yu from painting over his eye. Miss Yu giggled, but because Xiaoyun was ignoring her completely, she soon felt that this was a boring game. She lifted her brush and waited for Xiaoyun's next reaction. But Xiaoyun seemed to remain deliberately motionless, acting as though she weren't there at all.

"Hey!" Miss Yu said, waving her brush in front of his face.

Xiaoyun laughed with great contempt. His laughter was malevolent, and Miss Yu felt that. With something of a guilty conscience, she waited for his further reactions. After a moment, Xiaoyun said furiously, "Had enough fun and games?" But Miss Yu just painted some stubble around his mouth. Whether she did this out of mischief, or pique, or to disguise her guilty conscience, she could not herself have said.

"Enough fun and games?" Xiaoyun inquired again, sourly.

"Yes."

Xiaoyun grabbed the hand with which she held the brush, and quickly snatched the brush away, taking his revenge by drawing a great cross over her face. The violence was too much for Miss Yu, who couldn't defend herself effectively. She tried to wipe her face clean, but got ink all over her face. In anger, she stuck Xiaoyun on the head. He dodged to one side, but he had already received a vicious blow to the face.

Miss Yu, still furious, kept on striking Xiaoyun. Xiaoyun kept on retreating, and managed to defend himself effectively from her blows. In the end both of them fell heavily to the floor. Xiaoyun pressed Miss Yu down and didn't allow her to move. They wrestled for a while; neither of them was wearing much clothing, and flesh collided heavily with flesh. Deliberately or not, Xiaoyun's thin but strong hands struck Miss Yu's sensitive parts more than once, with the result that both of them became a little impulsive. As they fought, Xiaoyun's intentions became more obvious, and when he reached out to pull off Miss Yu's clothing, she flipped up like a fish, raised her head and bit Xiaoyun on the wrist. The bite angered Xiaoyun even more. The marks of her teeth showed clearly on his wrist. Miss Yu began to panic, and her expression turned into one of remorse and fear, while Xiaoyun, in a rage, seemed to have gone mad. He was murmuring something indistinctly, and, raising his hand high and gave Miss Yu a great slap on her flushed face. The slap suppressed Miss Yu, who couldn't remember that anyone had ever dared hit her. All of her pride vanished instantly with that blow, and she felt deeply wronged. At the same time, she felt that perhaps she had made a mistake, that she was paying for her errors. She felt that no matter what Xiaoyun did now, it would be justified.

The end result was unexpected but not really unreasonable. Miss Yu defended herself ineffectively. It could be called defense, but one could also have called it a kind of seduction or teasing, even a kind of obedience or cooperation. As he began to savagely pull her clothes off, Miss Yu was in fact also pulling off his clothing.

E
ven as Xiaoyun climbed the stairs up into the Mystery Chambers, Huaifu had a premonition of what would happen. He knew that Miss Yu was seducing Xiaoyun in the same way, with the same technique, that she had used to hook him in his time. Bowing his head in dejection, Huaifu approached Naixiang and looked at his ridiculous expression with frustration. Naixiang's expression was familiar, but this time it seemed rather different. From Naixiang's glazed eyes he seemed to see an unusual radiance. Huaifu didn't dare believe the change in Naixiang's eyes. Astonished, he examined Naixiang carefully and shouted, "Cousin!"

The unusual radiance of Naixiang's eyes persisted. "Cousin" Huaifu shouted again. Naixiang, no more than a breathing corpse, did not react. Huaifu put out his hand and waved it in front of Naixiang's eyes. Naixiang's expression remained as stiff as before, and Huaifu let his hand fall in disappointment. He concluded that he had been deceived by an illusion, and he dejectedly raised his head to look again at the Mystery Chambers. Just then, the unusual radiance in Naixiang's eye, which had flamed up like a fire, was gradually dying out. But from the corner of his withered eye, tears began with difficulty to trickle. Because Huaifu's attention was focused on the Mystery Chambers, he didn't at all notice this passing detail. The sound of Miss Yu and Xiaoyun talking in the Mystery Chambers could be heard in the distance.

Time passed very slowly, and the breeze had also ceased blowing. Huaifu pushed Naixiang slowly back and once again returned beneath the Mystery Chambers. Crashing and banging sounds of a fight resounded from the Tower, and Huaifu's heart beat just as violently. He wanted to rush up the tower, but he seemed to be rooted to the ground, absolutely incapable of motion. He knew that there was absolutely no way he could not climb the stairs just then, because he knew all about Miss Yu was thinking. It suddenly grew quiet in the Mystery Chambers, deathly quiet. Huaifu's eyes were as glassy as those of a fish, for he understood too well what this silence could mean. Finally, the sounds of Miss Yu's irrepressible shrieking and gasping were heard.

The shrieking and gasping were quickly replaced by rhythmical, yet unbridled moaning. It was a sound with which Huaifu was too familiar, as familiar as though Miss Yu were lying beneath his own body. With infinite pain, he mounted a few stairs of the Mystery Chambers, then didn't dare to go any higher. Miss Yu's unbridled moaning seemed to have been cut short by something, in any event it ceased abruptly. His face bathed in tears, Huaifu ground his teeth, hurtled down the stairs and rushed to his own room.

Samples of Miss Yu's calligraphy, big and small, were hanging about Huaifu's room. Using her calligraphy to decorate his room was one roundabout, rather tortuous way that Huaifu had taken to expressing his feelings ever since their sexual intimacy had begun. Without a doubt, the calligraphy formed a record of his love, and Huaifu's plan was that each time Miss Yu made a visit to him, he would add another one of her works. These characters, shifting gently in the breeze, these characters written out by her hand, these characters incessantly brimming with the fragrance of her body, were now stabbing at his heart like so many knives.

Dejected, Huaifu walked among the calligraphy, like a wounded animal, howling low, holding his head, colliding with the papers which hung about. He held his head in both his hands and cocked it to one side, brushing up against the calligraphy like a dog. Suddenly, he ripped one of the characters down and crumpled it into a ball. Then he sighed, and carefully flattened it out again, then again hung it up on a clip. A breeze came in, and the calligraphy shifted again on its clips, rustling cruelly.

F
aint white clouds were floating across the sky; the lotus in the urns was in full bloom. Xiaoyun returned from outside and discovered to his surprised that his rooms were packed with birdcages. Birdcalls rose and fell; it was a moment before Xiaoyun could understand what had happened. His dark glasses were broken now, and without them he seemed to be a new person entirely. He seemed a lot younger, and appeared much like any entirely straightforward young lad. The change made to the courtyard made him think for an instant that he had come to the wrong place.

"Sister" Xiaoyun called.

But only a succession of birdcalls answered him. Xiaoyun shouted louder. In answer to these cries, Miss Yu, beaming, emerged, walking with Suqin from the rooms. Miss Yu looked smugly at Xiaoyun's surprise. Xiaoyun turned his head and looked again at the birdcages hanging everywhere. Suddenly, he understood where all these cages had come from.

Miss Yu said, "What do you think? I set one of your birds free, but I've compensated you with all of these. Not a bad bargain for you, am I right?"

Suqin said, "Xiaoyun, where have you been? Our dear sister has been here for ages, and look at all the birds she's brought you."

A rare smile appeared on Xiaoyun's face. The smile was sincere, but it was also because his vanity had been satisfied. It suddenly seemed to him that Miss Yu was adorable.

Miss Yu said, "How about that? I give you such a good deal and all you can do is smile?"

Xiaoyun said, "What good deal is that?"

"In return for just one bird, you got all these birds. Didn't you get a good deal?"

Xiaoyun said, "Do you even know what kind of bird I used to have?"

Miss Yu said, "I don't care. Let me tell you, I had them get all the different kinds of birds that were for sale."

Xiaoyun could believe that this was exactly what Miss Yu had done, and he knew that in terms of birds, he really had gotten a great bargain. And it was not only in terms of birds—he felt that he now had the upper hand in all matters. "How about this? I don't want it to be a bad bargain for you. If you think I owe you something, I'll do the same thing you did, I'll set all the birds free." He smiled as he spoke, walking up to a birdcage and pretending to be about to free them. He had only been joking, and had no intention of freeing them.

Miss Yu said, "Go ahead, free them. Don't try to scare me."

Xiaoyun casually opened the door of the birdcage that was closest to him, and smiled at Miss Yu, saying, "I'm really opening it, then. You like to see the little birds free, don't you? Well, I'm freeing it, really freeing it. Don't tell me later that you regret it."

Miss Yu smiled at Xiaoyun. She didn't care at all. Whether it was better for birds to be kept in cages or whether they should be free was a question of no importance. Xiaoyun was only interested in talking with Miss Yu. The little bird in the open cage really did hop out, spread its wings and fly away. Xiaoyun was surprised and rushed to catch it, his hands grasping vainly at the air. Miss Yu said joyfully, "Set them free, since you want to! Let's see who can set more free!"

Suqin rushed to stop her, but it was pointless. Miss Yu had moved forward and opened all the cages one after another. At first Xiaoyun had tried to prevent her, but then he too began to laugh like a man possessed at Miss Yu's crazy actions. In the end he went crazy along with her, opening the cage at his side. The twittering birds surged one by one out of the open doors, and flew into the wide blue heavens.

I
n a hotel of the little town, a solemn-looking man dressed in a long robe and wearing spectacles, walked slowly along carrying a cane. A gorgeously-dressed woman, with thick make-up and her hair permed in a way mocked by the townspeople as the "hen's nest style," mincing along on his arm. Needless to say, the man had just checked into their hotel room. To "check into your hotel" had a particular definition in the little town: an affair. When the men in the little town talked about the two great pleasures of life, one of them was brothel visits and the other was checking in, although these two great matters were, if one thought about it carefully, really much the same affair. The only difference was that a brothel visit was according to an agreed price, while checking in involved beauties of all kinds, who not only came at different prices. But it might not be the man who brought the woman, there were also women with money who brought men there on the sly. The concierge of the hotel took off his glasses, and looked at the rump of the gorgeously dressed woman; he gave a sigh. He was already very familiar with that ample bottom. The woman was wearing a tight cheongsam, and her bottom was as full as an inflated ball, with the shape of her knickers distantly visible. A few days ago it had been the same woman who had come to the hotel with a man old enough to be her father. Morals were degenerating, and women were becoming more and more shameless. The concierge sighed and spat contemptuously in a corner.