CHAPTER XXXIX. Page 3 _The Dream of the Red Chamber
"Yesterday," T'an Ch'un at this point remarked, "We put cousin Shih to a lot of trouble and inconvenience, so, when we get back, we must consult about convening a meeting, and, while returning her entertainment, we can also invite our venerable ancestor to come and admire the chrysanthemums; what do you think of this?"
"Our worthy senior," smiled Pao-yue, "has intimated that she means to give a banquet to return cousin Shih's hospitality, and to ask us to do the honours. Let's wait therefore until we partake of grandmother's collation, before we issue our own invitations; there will be ample time then to do so."
"The later it gets, the cooler the weather becomes," T'an Ch'un observed, "and our dear senior is not likely to enjoy herself."
"Grandmother," added Pao-yue, "is also fond of rain and snow, so wouldn't it be as well to wait until the first fall, and then ask her to come and look at the snow. This will be better, won't it? And were we to recite our verses with snow about us, it will be ever so much more fun!"
"To hum verses in the snow," Lin Tai-yue speedily demurred with a smile, "won't, in my idea, be half as nice as building up a heap of firewood and then stealing it, with the flakes playing about us. This will be by far more enjoyable!"
This proposal made Pao-ch'ai and the others laugh. Pao-yue cast a glance at her but made no reply.
But, in a short time, the company broke up. Pao-yue eventually gave old goody Liu a tug on the sly and plied her with minute questions as to who the girl was. The old dame was placed under the necessity of fabricating something for his benefit. "The truth is," she said, "that there stands on the north bank of the ditch in our village a small ancestral hall, in which offerings are made, but not to spirits or gods. There was in former days some official or other..."
"While speaking, she went on to try and recollect his name and surname.
"No matter about names or surnames!" Pao-yue expostulated. "There's no need for you to recall them to memory! Just mention the facts; they'll be enough."
"This official," old goody Liu resumed, "had no son. His offspring consisted of one young daughter, who went under the name of Jo Yue, (like Jade). She could read and write, and was doated upon by this official and his consort, just as if she were a precious jewel. But, unfortunately, when this young lady, Jo Yue, grew up to be seventeen, she contracted some disease and died."
When these words fell on Pao-yue's ears, he stamped his foot and heaved a sigh. "What happened after that?" he then asked.
Old goody Liu pursued her story.
"So incessantly," she continued, "did this official and his consort think of their child that they raised this ancestral hall, erected a clay image of their young daughter Jo Yue in it, and appointed some one to burn incense and trim the fires. But so many days and years have now elapsed that the people themselves are no more alive, the temple is in decay, and the image itself is become a spirit."
"It hasn't become a spirit," remonstrated Pao-yue with vehemence. "Human beings of this kind may, the rule is, die, yet they are not dead."
"O-mi-to-fu!" ejaculated old goody Liu; "is it really so! Had you, sir, not enlightened us, we would have remained under the impression that she had become a spirit! But she repeatedly transforms herself into a human being, and there she roams about in every village, farmstead, inn and roadside. And the one I mentioned just now as having taken the firewood is that very girl! The villagers in our place are still consulting with the idea of breaking this clay image and razing the temple to the ground."
"Be quick and dissuade them!" eagerly exclaimed Pao-yue. "Were they to raze the temple to the ground, their crime won't be small."
"It's lucky that you told me, Sir," old goody Liu added. "When I get back to-morrow, I'll make them relinquish the idea and finish!"
"Our venerable senior and my mother," Pao-yue pursued, "are both charitable persons. In fact, all the inmates of our family, whether old or young, do, in like manner, delight in good deeds, and take pleasure in distributing alms. Their greatest relish is to repair temples, and to put up images to the spirits; so to-morrow, I'll make a subscription and collect a few donations for you, and you can then act as incense-burner. When sufficient money has been raised, this fane can be repaired, and another clay image put up; and month by month I'll give you incense and fire money to enable you to burn joss-sticks; won't this be A good thing for you?"
"In that case," old goody Liu rejoined, "I shall, thanks to that young lady's good fortune, have also a few cash to spend."
Pao-yue thereupon likewise wanted to know what the name of the place was, the name of the village, how far it was there and back, and whereabout the temple was situated.
Old goody Liu replied to his questions, by telling him every idle thought that came first to her lips. Pao-yue, however, credited the information she gave him and, on his return to his rooms, he exercised, the whole night, his mind with building castles in the air.
On the morrow, as soon as daylight dawned, he speedily stepped out of his room, and, handing Pei Ming several hundreds of cash, he bade him proceed first in the direction and to the place specified by old goody Liu, and clearly ascertain every detail, so as to enable him, on his return from his errand, to arrive at a suitable decision to carry out his purpose. After Pei Ming's departure, Pao-yue continued on pins on needles and on the tiptoe of expectation. Into such a pitch of excitement did he work himself, that he felt like an ant in a burning pan. With suppressed impatience, he waited and waited until sunset. At last then he perceived Pei Ming walk in, in high glee.
"Have you discovered the place?" hastily inquired Pao-yue.
"Master," Pei Ming laughed, "you didn't catch distinctly the directions given you, and you made me search in a nice way! The name of the place and the bearings can't be those you gave me, Sir; that is why I've had to hunt about the whole day long! I prosecuted my inquiries up to the very ditch on the north east side, before I eventually found a ruined temple."
Upon hearing the result of his researches, Pao-yue was much gratified. His very eyebrows distended. His eyes laughed. "Old goody Liu," he said with eagerness, "is a person well up in years, and she may at the moment have remembered wrong; it's very likely she did. But recount to me what you saw."
"The door of that temple," Pei Ming explained, "really faces south, and is all in a tumble-down condition. I searched and searched till I was driven to utter despair. As soon, however, as I caught sight of it, 'that's right,' I shouted, and promptly walked in. But I at once discovered a clay figure, which gave me such a fearful start, that I scampered out again; for it looked as much alive as if it were a real living being."
Pao-yue smiled full of joy. "It can metamorphose itself into a human being," he observed, "so, of course, it has more or less a life-like appearance."
"Was it ever a girl?" Pei Ming rejoined clapping his hands. "Why it was, in fact, no more than a green-faced and red-haired god of plagues."
Pao-yue, at this answer, spat at him contemptuously. "You are, in very truth, a useless fool!" he cried. "Haven't you even enough gumption for such a trifling job as this?"
"What book, I wonder, have you again been reading, master?" Pei Ming continued. "Or you may, perhaps, have heard some one prattle a lot of trash and believed it as true! You send me on this sort of wild goose chase and make me go and knock my head about, and how can you ever say that I'm good for nothing?"
Pao-yue did not fail to notice that he was in a state of exasperation so he lost no time in trying to calm him. "Don't be impatient!" he urged. "You can go again some other day, when you've got nothing to attend to, and institute further inquiries! If it turns out that she has hood-winked us, why, there will, naturally, be no such thing. But if, verily, there is, won't you also lay up for yourself a store of good deeds? I shall feel it my duty to reward you in a most handsome manner."
As he spoke, he espied a servant-lad, on service at the second gate, approach and report to him: "The young ladies in our venerable ladyship's apartments are standing at the threshold of the second gate and looking out for you, Mr. Secundus."
But as, reader, you are not aware what they were on the look-out to tell him, the subsequent chapter will explain it for you.