The Warning Voice (59 page)

Zhou Rui's wife turned on Chess angrily.

‘You're not a lady's maid now, you know.
Now
if you don't do what I tell you, I have the right, to beat you, just like any other servant. You can't play fast and loose with us
now
and then run to your mistress to save you from the consequences. I've told you a number of times to be on your way, but you take no notice. A maid holding on to a young master – whoever heard of such a thing!'

At this the other women laid violent hands on Chess and hurried her away. Bao-yu, fearing that if he said anything it would only make matters worse, glared at them in silence; but he could not resist pointing his finger at them when they had gone and –
sotto vote
– giving bitter vent to his feelings:

‘Strange, the way they get like this when they marry! It must be something in the male that infects them. If anything they end up even worse than the men!'

The old women on duty at the gate overheard this and could not help laughing at him.

‘In that case all girls must be good and all women must be bad,' they said. ‘You don't really believe that, do you?'

‘Indeed I do,' said Bao-yu feelingly. ‘That's precisely what I
do
believe.'

Just at that moment some other old women came hurrying up to them.

‘Make sure you're all here in case Her Ladyship wants you,' said one of them. ‘She's in the Garden now, making an inspection. And someone go and get Skybright's cousin and
his wife, so that they'll be ready to take her away presently.' She chuckled. ‘Holy Name! The Lord has opened his eyes at last! With that little pest out of the way, it will be a better place for all of us!'

At the old woman's mention of his mother's presence, Bao-yu, fearing that it might bode ill for Skybright, had rushed off immediately, so that he had missed the gloating remark which followed it. When he arrived at Green Delights, he found a small crowd of women waiting outside the door. His mother was sitting inside the room with anger written all over her face. She deliberately ignored him as he entered. Skybright, who had taken no nourishment of any kind for the past four or five days and was in too weak a state to get up, had been dragged from the kang and now stood facing her, propped up between two women. Her hair was in disarray and her face looked as if it needed washing.

‘Throw out the clothes she has been wearing,' Lady Wang was saying. ‘She can take them with her. The rest can be kept here and given to more deserving maids to wear.'

Having finished with Skybright, she ordered all the other maids to be called in, from Aroma down to the most junior maid-of-all-work, to be subjected to her scrutiny. Each and every one of them was in Lady Wang's opinion a potential corrupter of her boy.

‘Which is the one whose birthday is on the same day as Bao-yu's?' she asked.

Since the girl herself would not answer, one of the old women pointed her out.

‘This is the one, Your Ladyship: Citronella. She's called “Number Four”.
she's
the one whose birthday is on the same day as Bao-yu's.'

Lady Wang examined the girl closely. Although not half as good-looking as Skybright, she had a certain gracefulness about her, and intelligence shone out in her every feature. She was moreover better dressed than the other maids. Lady Wang sniffed scornfully.

‘Another shameless young baggage! This is the one who said that those with the same birthday are destined to be husband and wife. You did say that, didn't you? You think
that because I live away from here I don't know these things; but though I may not come here often myself, I have my eyes and ears here, watching you and listening to you all the time. Do you imagine that I would willingly allow my only son to be corrupted by creatures like you?'

Number Four reddened, hearing from Lady Wang's own lips the words she once said to Bao-yu in private. It was useless to deny that she had said them. She hung her head and wept.

‘Tell her people to come and take her away,' said Lady Wang. ‘She can be paired off with one of the boys.'

Exit Number Four.

‘Now which is the one with the foreign name?' said Lady Wang.

Parfumée-Aventurin stepped forward.

‘Oh, it is you. One
expects
an actress to be a vampire, but one had hoped, after you turned down the opportunity to go free and insisted on staying here, that you would make some effort to behave. Instead, it seems, you have turned your attentions on my son and been encouraging him to get up to I don't know what sorts of mischief.'

Parfumée smiled.

‘I haven't encouraged him to get up to anything.'

Lady Wang smiled back at her.

‘You would argue with
me
, would you? I suppose it is hardly surprising, considering the way you treated your own foster-mother while I was away. – Call her foster-mother!' she ordered. ‘I make her a present of this girl. She can marry her to whomever she likes. And you can give her her things to take as well.'

Having thus disposed of Parfumée, she went on to give orders that
none
of the remaining ex-actresses were to stay any longer in the Garden. Their foster-mothers were to be summoned to collect them and allowed to dispose of them as they wished. The delight and gratitude of these women when they received the message can be imagined. They arranged among themselves to visit Lady Wang in a body and kotow their thanks to her before going into the Garden to collect the girls.

Lady Wang now proceeded to inspect Bao-yu's things.
Anything which looked at all unfamiliar she had put on one side. The whole lot were then wrapped up in one big bundle and carried to her own apartment.

‘Much better make a clean sweep of these things,' she said. ‘There will be that much less for people to gossip about.'

In conclusion she admonished Aroma and the remaining maids.

‘Now be careful! From now on if I hear of anything the slightest bit untoward happening, I shall have no mercy! I can't move you out yet, because there are still investigations in progress, but next year I shall have the whole lot of you moved back into the mansion, and then perhaps I shall be able to set my mind at rest.'

She went off at the head of her little troop of women, not even staying for a cup of tea.

When Bao-yu heard from the old woman of his mother's visit, he had expected something unpleasant but of no great consequence: perhaps another inspection of the maids' possessions. He was therefore quite unprepared for the raging tempest that had just passed over him. The things his mother had charged the maids with showed so uncanny a knowledge of even his most intimate conversations with them that there seemed little point in denial. He felt wretched enough to die, but it was clear that even self-immolation could achieve nothing while his mother's anger was at its height. He therefore followed after her in silence, until he had seen her as far as Drenched Blossoms Pavilion half-way across the bridge, when she peremptorily ordered him to return.

‘Go back – and get on with your studies! Then next time your father asks you about them, you will at least be able to say that you have made a start.'

Bao-yu turned back. All the way back to Green Delights he was thinking to himself:

‘Who's been blabbing? No one outside knows about these things. How did Mother get to hear about them?'

The question was continuing to trouble him when he entered his room. He noticed that Aroma was in tears.

‘Well, she would be if
any
of the senior maids was leaving,' he thought. ‘It's only natural.'

He flung himself down on the bed and broke into loud sobs. Aroma tried to talk him out of his despair. She knew that, whatever might become of anyone else, it was Skybright that he was chiefly concerned about.

‘Oh, do get-up!' she said. ‘What's the use of crying? I tell you, Skybright will be better off where she is going. Back at home she will at least be able to have a few days to herself in peace and quiet. And if you really can't bear to be without her, you have only to wait until Her Ladyship's anger has cooled down a bit and then go and ask Her Old Ladyship to have her brought back again. It shouldn't be difficult. Her Ladyship was acting in anger. Probably she had heard someone gossiping about her.'

‘But what heinous crime is Skybright supposed to have committed?' said Bao-yu.

‘Maybe she isn't,' said Aroma. ‘Maybe Her Ladyship just thinks she is too good-looking. She probably thinks that anyone who is so good-looking must be unreliable. She knows these very beautiful young women are often trouble-makers. Probably she dislikes Skybright just for being beautiful. It's better to be a plain, gawky person like me!'

‘Who said that beautiful women are trouble-makers?' said Bao-yu. ‘There have always been lots and lots of beautiful women who were nothing of the kind. But never mind all that. What I can't understand is, how did Mother get to hear about all those private jokes of ours? No one outside could have told her. It's very, very strange.'

‘Look how careless you are,' said Aroma. ‘Once you get a bit excited you are capable of saying anything, regardless of who else is around. Many and many's the time I have given you a look or made some sign to warn you, but you never notice.'

‘Maybe,' said Bao-yu, ‘but tell me this. How is it that she'd heard something damaging about every single person in this apartment except you and Musk and Ripple?'

Somewhat taken aback by this question, Aroma hung her head and pondered it for some moments, but she was unable to think of an explanation. She laughed embarrassedly.

‘I agree, it
is
rather strange. We three must often have made
careless remarks that could have been used against us. I wonder why Her Ladyship didn't mention any? Perhaps she'll come back and deal with us three later.'

‘You?'
said Bao-yu, laughing incredulously. ‘The famous paragon of all the virtues? There's little danger of her finding fault with
you
. Or with those other two, whom you trained and moulded in your own image. Parfumée I can understand: she is young and precocious and inclined to use her intelligence for putting other people down, so it's hardly surprising that she should be disliked. Number Four's unpopularity I blame myself for. It dates from that time when you and I had quarrelled about something and I allowed her to wait on me in your place. The others must have resented my giving her special treatment, and that, ultimately, must be the reason for what has happened to her today. But why Skybright? You and she started together with my grandmother when you were little girls. It's true she is a bit better-looking than the rest of you, but she has never taken advantage of that fact: no one has ever been made to feel threatened by it. Even her forthrightness – and she could be quite sharp-tongued on occasion – has never, as far as I am aware, given serious offence. I suppose it must be as you say: her good looks have been her undoing.'

He concluded by once more bursting into tears.

Mulling over what he had just said, Aroma concluded that it could only mean that he suspected her. There seemed little point in protesting. She sighed.

‘There's One above who knows the truth of the matter; but I don't suppose
we
shall find out who it was for a while yet. At all events, crying isn't going to help. Much better keep your spirits up and next time Her Old Ladyship is feeling cheerful, explain what has happened and ask to have Skybright back again.'

‘You only say that to humour me,' said Bao-yu bitterly. ‘According to you I am to wait until Mother's anger has subsided and after that wait until a favourable opportunity arises for talking to Grandmother; but what makes you think that Skybright's illness will wait that long? Ever since she came into our family as a child she has lived comfortably. She has
never had to experience a single day of real hardship. Sending her to that place now is like taking a potted orchid that has just started putting out its first tender spears of growth and setting it down in a pigsty. Apart from being physically ill, she must be in a terrible state mentally as well. And she has no kind parents to look after her, don't forget: only that worthless cousin and his wife. I doubt she'll last there a fortnight. I may not even be able to see her again.'

‘Curfew for the common people, but the Prefect can light a fire,' said Aroma drily. ‘What a fuss you'd have made if
I
'd said anything so unlucky! How can you bear to talk so glibly about her dying?'

‘It isn't unlucky to talk about what has already been foretold,' said Bao-yu. ‘There was a portent of her coming death last spring.'

‘Oh?' said Aroma in some surprise. ‘What was that?'

‘The crab-apple tree in the courtyard here: only one half of it budded this year; the other side seems to have died. I knew at the time that something awful must be going to happen; now I can see that it must have been a portent of her death.'

Aroma laughed out loud.

‘Forgive me, but I just can't help myself. You really are an old woman! And you supposed to be so educated! How can what happens to trees and plants have anything to do with human beings?'

Bao-yu sighed.

‘What do you know about it? Not only plants and trees, but all things that live and grow have feelings. And like us, they are most responsive to those who most appreciate them. There are plenty of examples from history: the juniper tree in front of the temple of Confucius, the milfoil that grows beside his tomb, the cypress in front of Zhu-ge Liang's shrine, the pine-tree that grows in front of Yue Fei's grave: all those paragons of the vegetable world, mightily endowed with vital essence and able to withstand the ravages of the centuries, have withered and dried up in times of disorder, only to flourish once more when times were prosperous. In the course of a thousand or more years all of them have died and come
to life again several times over. If those are not portents, what are they? On a somewhat less exalted level there are the peonies beside Yang Gui-fei's Aloeswood Pavilion, the rhododendrons of the Duan-cheng-lou and the evergreen grass on Lady Bright's grave. Surely you can't deny that all these are instances of sympathy between plants and humans? I see no reason to doubt that our crab-apple tree too was reacting to a human situation.'