曹雪芹 | algiers杨宪益 | 霍克斯 |
第十二回 accidently王熙凤毒设相思局 贾天祥正照风月鉴 话说凤姐正与平儿说话，只见有人回说："瑞大爷来了。"凤姐急命"快请进来。"贾瑞见往里让，心中喜出望外，急忙进来，见了凤姐，满面陪笑，连连问好。凤姐儿也假意殷勤，让茶让坐。武汉英国留学中介 贾瑞见凤姐如此打扮，亦发酥倒，因饧了眼问道："二哥哥怎么还不回来？"凤姐道： "不知什么原故。"贾瑞笑道："别是路上有人绊住了脚了，舍不得回来也未可知？"凤姐道："也未可知。男人家见一个爱一个也是有的。"贾瑞笑道："嫂子这话说错了，我就不这样。"凤姐笑道："象你这样的人能有几个呢，十个里也挑不出一个来。"贾瑞听了喜的抓耳挠腮，又道："嫂子天天也闷的很。"凤姐道："正是呢，只盼个人来说话解解闷儿。"贾瑞笑道："我倒天天闲着，天天过来替嫂子解解闲闷可好不好？"凤姐笑道："你哄我呢，你那里肯往我这里来。"贾瑞道："我在嫂子跟前，若有一点谎话，天打雷劈！只因素日闻得人说，嫂子是个利害人，在你跟前一点也错不得，所以唬住了我。如今见嫂子最是个有说有笑极疼人的，我怎么不来，----死了也愿意！"凤姐笑道："果然你是个明白人，比贾蓉两个强远了。我看他那样清秀，只当他们心里明白，谁知竟是两个胡涂虫，一点不知人心。" 贾瑞听了这话，越发撞在心坎儿上，由不得又往前凑了一凑，觑着眼看凤姐带的荷包，然后又问带着什么戒指。凤姐悄悄道："放尊重着，别叫丫头们看了笑话。"贾瑞如听纶音佛语一般，忙往后退。凤姐笑道："你该走了。"贾瑞说："我再坐一坐儿。"----好狠心的嫂子。"凤姐又悄悄的道："大天白日，人来人往，你就在这里也不方便。你且去，等着晚上起了更你来，悄悄的在西边穿堂儿等我。"贾瑞听了，如得珍宝，忙问道："你别哄我。但只那里人过的多，怎么好躲的？"凤姐道："你只放心。我把上夜的小厮们都放了假，两边门一关，再没别人了。"贾瑞听了，喜之不尽，忙忙的告辞而去，心内以为得手。 盼到晚上，果然黑地里摸入荣府，趁掩门时，钻入穿堂。果见漆黑无一人，往贾母那边去的门户已倒锁，只有向东的门未关。贾瑞侧耳听着，半日不见人来，忽听咯噔一声，东边的门也倒关了。贾瑞急的也不敢则声，只得悄悄的出来，将门撼了撼，关的铁桶一般。此时要求出去亦不能够，南北皆是大房墙，要跳亦无攀援。这屋内又是过门风，空落落，现是腊月天气，夜又长，朔风凛凛，侵肌裂骨，一夜几乎不曾冻死。好容易盼到早晨，只见一个老婆子先将东门开了，进去叫西门。贾瑞瞅他背着脸，一溜烟抱着肩跑了出来，幸而天气尚早，人都未起，从后门一径跑回家去。原来贾瑞父母早亡，只有他祖父代儒教养。那代儒素日教训最严，不许贾瑞多走一步，生怕他在外吃酒赌钱，有误学业。今忽见他一夜不归，只料定他在外非饮即赌，嫖娼宿妓，那里想到这段公案，因此气了一夜。贾瑞也捻着一把汗，少不得回来撒谎，只说："往舅舅家去了，天黑了，留我住了一夜。"代儒道："自来出门，非禀我不敢擅出，如何昨日私自去了？据此亦该打，何况是撒谎。"因此，发狠到底打了三四十扳，不许吃饭，令他跪在院内读文章，定要补出十天的工课来方罢。贾瑞直冻了一夜，今又遭了苦打，且饿着肚子，跪着在风地里读文章，其苦万状。 此时贾瑞前心犹是未改，再想不到是凤姐捉弄他。过后两日，得了空，便仍来找凤姐。凤姐故意抱怨他失信，贾瑞急的赌身发誓。凤姐因见他自投罗网，少不得再寻别计令他知改，故又约他道："今日晚上，你别在那里了。你在我这房后小过道子里那间空屋里等我，可别冒撞了。"贾瑞道："果真？"凤姐道："谁可哄你，你不信就别来。"贾瑞道："来，来，来。死也要来！"凤姐道："这会子你先去罢。"贾瑞料定晚间必妥，此时先去了。凤姐在这里便点兵派将，设下圈套。 那贾瑞只盼不到晚上，偏生家里亲戚又来了，直等吃了晚饭才去，那天已有掌灯时候。又等他祖父安歇了，方溜进荣府，直往那夹道中屋子里来等着，热锅上的蚂蚁一般，只是干转。左等不见人影，右听也没声响，心下自思："别是又不来了，又冻我一夜不成？"正自胡猜，只见黑аа的来了一个人，贾瑞便意定是凤姐，不管皂白，饿虎一般，等那人刚至门前，便如猫捕鼠的一般，抱住叫道："亲嫂子，等死我了。"说着，抱到屋里炕上就亲嘴扯裤子，满口里"亲娘""亲爹"的乱叫起来。那人只不作声。贾瑞拉了自己裤子，硬帮帮的就想顶入。忽见灯光一闪，只见贾蔷举着个捻子照道："谁在屋里？"只见炕上那人笑道： "瑞大叔要臊我呢。"贾瑞一见，却是贾蓉，真臊的无地可入，不知要怎么样才好，回身就要跑，被贾蔷一把揪住道："别走！如今琏二嫂已经告到太太跟前，说你无故调戏他。他暂用了个脱身计，哄你在这边等着，太太气死过去，因此叫我来拿你。刚才你又拦住他，没的说，跟我去见太太！" 贾瑞听了，魂不附体，只说："好侄儿，只说没有见我，明日我重重的谢你。"贾蔷道："你若谢我，放你不值什么，只不知你谢我多少？况且口说无凭，写一文契来。"贾瑞道："这如何落纸呢？"贾蔷道："这也不妨，写一个赌钱输了外人帐目，借头家银若干两便罢。"贾瑞道："这也容易。只是此时无纸笔。"贾蔷道："这也容易。"说罢翻身出来，纸笔现成，拿来命贾瑞写。他两作好作歹，只写了五十两，然后画了押，贾蔷收起来。然后撕逻贾蓉。贾蓉先咬定牙不依，只说："明日告诉族中的人评评理。"贾瑞急的至于叩头。贾蔷作好作歹的，也写了一张五十两欠契才罢。贾蔷又道："如今要放你，我就担着不是。老太太那边的门早已关了，老爷正在厅上看南京的东西，那一条路定难过去，如今只好走后门。若这一走，倘或遇见了人，连我也完了。等我们先去哨探哨探，再来领你。这屋你还藏不得，少时就来堆东西。等我寻个地方。"说毕，拉着贾瑞，仍熄了灯，出至院外，摸着大台矶底下，说道："这窝儿里好，你只蹲着，别哼一声，等我们来再动。"说毕，二人去了。 abdicate贾瑞此时身不由己，只得蹲在那里。心下正盘算，只听头顶上一声响，б拉拉一净桶尿粪从上面直泼下来，可巧浇了他一身一头。贾瑞掌不住嗳哟了一声，忙又掩住口，不敢声张，满头满脸浑身皆是尿屎，冰冷打战。只见贾蔷跑来叫："快走，快走！"贾瑞如得了命，三步两步从后门跑到家里，天已三更，只得叫门。开门人见他这般景况，问是怎的。少不得扯谎说："黑了，失脚掉在茅厕里了。"一面到了自己房中更衣洗濯，心下方想到是凤姐顽他，因此发一回恨，再想想凤姐的模样儿，又恨不得一时搂在怀内，一夜竟不曾合眼。 自此满心想凤姐，只不敢往荣府去了。贾蓉两个又常常的来索银子，他又怕祖父知道，正是相思尚且难禁，更又添了债务，日间工课又紧，他二十来岁人，尚未娶亲，迩来想着凤姐，未免有那指头告了消乏等事，更兼两回冻恼奔波，因此三五下里夹攻，不觉就得了一病： 心内发膨胀，口中无滋味，脚下如绵，眼中似醋，黑夜作烧，白昼常倦，下溺连精，嗽痰带血。诸如此症，不上一年都添全了。于是不能支持，一头睡倒，合上眼还只梦魂颠倒，满口乱说胡话，惊怖异常。百般请医疗治，诸如肉桂，附子，鳖甲，麦冬，玉竹等药，吃了有几十斤下去，也不见个动静。倏又腊尽春回，这病更又沉重。代儒也着了忙，各处请医疗治，皆不见效。因后来吃"独参汤"，代儒如何有这力量，只得往荣府来寻。王夫人命凤姐秤二两给他，凤姐回说："前儿新近都替老太太配了药，那整的太太又说留着送杨提督的太太配药，偏生昨儿我已送了去了。"王夫人道："就是咱们这边没了，你打发个人往你婆婆那边问问，或是你珍大哥哥那府里再寻些来，凑着给人家。吃好了，救人一命，也是你的好处。"凤姐听了，也不遣人去寻，只得将些渣末泡须凑了几钱，命人送去，只说："太太送来的，再也没了。"然后回王夫人，只说："都寻了来，共凑了有二两送去。" 那贾瑞此时要命心甚切，无药不吃，只是白花钱，不见效。忽然这日有个跛足道人来化斋，口称专治冤业之症。贾瑞偏生在内就听见了，直着声叫喊说："快请进那位菩萨来救我！"一面叫，一面在枕上叩首。众人只得带了那道士进来。贾瑞一把拉住，连叫"菩萨救我！"那道士叹道："你这病非药可医。我有个宝贝与你，你天天看时，此命可保矣。"说毕，从褡裢中取出一面镜子来----两面皆可照人，镜把上面錾着"风月宝鉴"四字----递与贾瑞道："这物出自太虚幻境空灵殿上，警幻仙子所制，专治邪思妄动之症，有济世保生之功。所以带他到世上，单与那些聪明杰俊，风雅王孙等看照。千万不可照正面，只照他的背面，要紧，要紧！三日后吾来收取，管叫你好了。"说毕，佯常而去，众人苦留不住。 贾瑞收了镜子，想道："这道士倒有意思，我何不照一照试试。"想毕，拿起"风月鉴"来，向反面一照，只见一个骷髅立在里面，唬得贾瑞连忙掩了，骂："道士混帐，如何吓我！----我倒再照照正面是什么。"想着，又将正面一照，只见凤姐站在里面招手叫他。贾瑞心中一喜，荡悠悠的觉得进了镜子，与凤姐云雨一番，凤姐仍送他出来。到了床上，哎哟了一声，一睁眼，镜子从手里掉过来，仍是反面立着一个骷髅。贾瑞自觉汗津津的，底下已遗了一滩精。心中到底不足，又翻过正面来，只见凤姐还招手叫他，他又进去。如此三四次。到了这次，刚要出镜子来，只见两个人走来，拿铁锁把他套住，拉了就走。贾瑞叫道："让我拿了镜子再走。"----只说了这句，就再不能说话了。 旁边伏侍贾瑞的众人，只见他先还拿着镜子照，落下来，仍睁开眼拾在手内，末后镜子落下来便不动了。众人上来看看，已没了气。身子底下冰凉渍湿一大滩精，这才忙着穿衣抬床。代儒夫妇哭的死去活来，大骂道士，"是何妖镜！若不早毁此物，遗害于世不小。"遂命架火来烧，只听镜内哭道："谁叫你们瞧正面了！你们自己以假为真，何苦来烧我？ "正哭着，只见那跛足道人从外面跑来，喊道："谁毁`风月鉴'，吾来救也！"说着，直入中堂，抢入手内，飘然去了。 当下，代儒料理丧事，各处去报丧。三日起经，七日发引，寄灵于铁槛寺，日后带回原籍。当下贾家众人齐来吊问，荣国府贾赦赠银二十两，贾政亦是二十两，宁国府贾珍亦有二十两，别者族中贫富不等，或三两五两，不可胜数。另有各同窗家分资，也凑了二三十两。代儒家道虽然淡薄，倒也丰丰富富完了此事。 谁知这年冬底，林如海的书信寄来，却为身染重疾，写书特来接林黛玉回去。贾母听了，未免又加忧闷，只得忙忙的打点黛玉起身。宝玉大不自在，争奈父女之情，也不好拦劝。于是贾母定要贾琏送他去，仍叫带回来。一应土仪盘缠，不消烦说，自然要妥贴。作速择了日期，贾琏与林黛玉辞别了贾母等，带领仆从，登舟往扬州去了。要知端的，且听下回分解。 | Chapter 12 Xifeng Sets a Vicious Trap mountaindewfor a Lover Jia Rui Looks into the Wrong Side of the Precious Mirror of Love While Xifeng was talking to Pinger, Jia Rui was announced. She ordered him to be admitted at once. Overjoyed at being received, he hastened in and greeted her effusively, beaming with smiles. With a show of regard she made him take a at and offered him tea. The sight of her in informal dress threw him into raptures. Gazing amorously at her he asked: “Why isn’t Second Brother Lian home yet?” “I wouldn’t know,” Xifeng replied. “Perhaps he’s been caught by someone and can’t tear himlf away?” “Perhaps. Men are like that. Bewitched by every pretty face they e.” “Not all of us, sister-in-law. I’m not like that.” “How many are there like you? Not one in ten.” Tweaking his ears and rubbing his cheeks with delight, the young man insinuated, “You must be very bored here day in and day out.” “Yes indeed. I keep wishing someone would drop in for a chat to cheer me.” “I have plenty of time. Suppo I were to drop in to amu you every day?” “Now you’re joking,” she replied archly. “You wouldn’t want to come and e me.” “I mean every word I say. May a thunderbolt strike me if I don’t! I didn’t dare come before becau I was told you were very strict and took offence at the least little thing. Now I e how charming and how kind you are, you may be sure I’ll come, even if it costs me my life.” “You’re certainly much more understanding than Jia Rong and his brother. They look so refined one would expect them to be understanding, but they’re stupid fools with no insight at all into other people’s hearts.” Inflamed by this prai, he edged clor. Staring at the pur hanging from her girdle, he asked if he might look at her rings. “Take care,” she whispered. “What will the maids think?” He drew back instantly as if obeying an Imperial decree or a mandate from Buddha. “You had better go now,” Xifeng smiled. “Don’t be so cruel. Let me stay a little longer.” “This is no place for you during the day with so many people about,” she murmured. “Go now but come back again cretly at the first watch. Wait for me in the western entrance hall.” To Jia Rui this was like receiving a pearl of great price. “You’re not joking, are you?” he demanded. “How can I hide there with people passing back and forth all the time?” “Don’t worry. I’ll dismiss all the pages on night duty. Once the gates on both sides are locked, no one can come through.” Hardly able to contain himlf for joy, the young man hurried off, convinced he would have his desire and longing for the evening. That night, sure enough, he groped his way to the Rong Mansion, slipping into the entrance hall just before the gates were bolted. It was pitch dark and not a soul was about. Already the gate to the Lady Dowager’s quarters was locked, only the one on the east remaining open. He waited, listening intently, but no one came. Then with a sudden clatter the east gate was bolted too. Frantic as he was, he dared not make a sound. He crept out to try the gate and found it curely clod. Escape was out of the question, for the walls on either side were too high to climb. The entrance hall was bare and draughty. As it was the depth of winter the nights were long and an icy north wind chilled him to the bone. He almost froze to death. At last dawn came and a matron appeared to open the east gate. As she went over to knock on the west gate and was looking the other way, Jia Rui shot out like a streak of smoke, hugging his shoulders. Luckily no one el was up at this early hour. He was able to escape unen through the postern door. Jia Rui had been orphaned early and left in the charge of his grandfather Jia Dairu, a strict disciplinarian who allowed him no freedom for fear he drink or gamble outside and neglect his studies. Now that he had stayed out all night his grandfather was furious and suspected him of drinking, gambling or whoring, little guessing the truth of the matter. In a cold sweat with fright, Jia Rui tried to lie his way out. 递交英文“I went to my uncle’s hou, and becau it was late he kept me for the night.” “You have never dared leave home before without permission,” thundered his grandfather. “You derve a beating for sneaking off like that. And a wor one for deceiving me. He gave Jia Rui thirty or forty strokes with a bamboo, would not let him have any food, and made him kneel in the courtyard to study ten days’ lessons. This thrashing on an empty stomach and kneeling in the wind to read essays completed the wretched youth’s miry after his freezing But still too blinded by infatuation to realize that Xifeng was playing with him, he ized his first chance a couple of days later to call. She reproached him for his breach of faith, earnestly as he protested his innocence; and since he had delivered himlf into her hands she could not but devi further means to cure him. “Tonight you can wait for me in another place that vacant room off the passage behind this apartment. But mind you don’t make any mistake this time.” “Do you really mean it?” “Of cour I do. If you don’t believe me, don’t come.” “I’ll come, I’ll come, even if I should die for it.” “Now, you’d better go.” Assuming that this time all would go well, Jia Rui went off. Having got rid of him, Xifeng held a council of war and baited her trap while the young man waited at home impatiently, for to his annoyance one of their relatives called and stayed to supper. By the time he left the lamps were being lit, and Jia Rui had to wait for his grandfather to retire before he could slip over to the Rong Mansion and wait in the place appointed. He paced the room frantic as an ant on a hot griddle, but there was no sight or sound of anyone. “Is she really coming?” he wondered. “Or shall I be left to freeze for another whole night?” Just then a dark figure appeared. Sure that it was Xifeng, he threw caution to the winds and barely had the figure stepped through the door than he flung himlf on it like a ravenous tiger, or a cat pouncing on a mou. “Dearest!” he cried. “I nearly died of longing.” He carried her to the kang, where he showered kiss on her and fumbled with her clothes, pouring out incoherent endearments. Not a sound came from the figure in his arms. Jia Rui had just pulled down his pants and prepared to t to work when a sudden flash of light made him look up. There stood Jia Qiang, a taper in his hand. “What’s going on in here?” he demanded. The figure on the kang said with a chuckle, “Uncle Rui was trying to bugger me.” When Jia Rui saw that it was Jia Rong, he wished he could sink through the ground. In utter confusion he turned to run away. “Oh, no you don’t!” Jia Qiang grabbed him. “Aunt Xifeng has told Lady Wang that without any reason you tried to make love to her. To escape your attentions she played this trick to trap you. Lady Wang’s fainted from shock. I was nt here to catch you. I found you on top of him, you can’t deny it. So come along with me to Lady Wang!” Jia Rui nearly gave up the ghost. “Dear nephew,” he pleaded, “do tell her you couldn’t find me. I’ll pay you well for it tomorrow.” “I might do that. Depends how much you’re willing to pay. I can’t just take your word for it, I must have it down in writing.” “How can I put a thing like this down in writing?” “That’s no problem. Just write that you borrowed so much silver from the bank to pay a gambling debt.” “All right. But I’ve no paper or brush.” “That’s easy.” Jia Qiang disappeared for a moment and promptly returned with writing materials, where upon the two of them forced Jia Rui to write and sign an I. O. U. for fifty taels which Jia Qiang pocketed. When he urged Jia Rong to leave, however, the latter at first absolutely refud and threatened to lay the matter before the whole clan the next morning, Jia Rui kowtowed to him in desperation. However, with Jia Qiang mediating between them, he was forced to write another I. O. U. for fifty taels of silver. “I’ll get the blame if you’re en leaving,” said Jia Qiang. “The Lady Dowager’s gate is clod, and the Second Master is in the hall looking over the things which have arrived from Jinling, so you can’t get out that way. You’ll have to go through the back gate. But if anyone meets you I’ll be finished too. Let me e if the coast is clear. You can’t hide here, they’ll be bringing stuff in prently. I’ll find you somewhere to wait. He blew out the light and dragged Jia Rui out to the foot of some steps in the yard. “Here’s a good place,” he whispered. “Squat down there until we come back and don’t make a sound.” As the two others left, Jia Rui squatted obediently at the foot of the steps. He was thinking over his predicament when he heard a splash above him and a bucket of slops was emptied over his head. A cry of dismay escaped him. But he clapped one hand over his mouth and made not another sound, though covered with filth from head to foot and shivering with cold. Then Jia Qiang hurried over calling: “Quick! Run for it!” At this reprieve, Jia Rui bolted through the back door to his home. By now the third watch had sounded, and he had to knock at the gate. The rvant who opened it wanted to know how he came to be in such a state. “I fell into a cesspool in the dark,” lied Jia Rui. Back in his own room he stripped off his clothes and washed. Only then did he realize with rage the trick Xifeng had played him, yet the recollection of her charms still made him long to embrace her. There was no sleep for him that night. Afterwards, however, although he still longed for Xifeng, he steered clear of the Rong Mansion. Both Jia Rong and Jia Qiang kept dunning him for payment, so that his fear of being found out by his grandfather and the hopeless passion which consumed him were now aggravated by the burden of debts, while he had to work hard at his lessons every day. The unmarried twenty-year-old, constantly dreaming of Xifeng, could not help indulging in “finger-play.” All this, combined with the effect of two nights of exposure, soon made him fall ill. Before a year was out he suffered from heartburn, loss of appetite, emissions in his urine and blood in his phlegm; his legs trembled, his eyes smarted; he was feverish at night and exhausted by day. And finally he collapd in a fit of delirium. The doctors who were called in dod him with dozens of catties of cinnamon, aconitum roots, turtle-shell, liriope, polygonatum and so forth---but all to no effect. With the coming of spring he took a turn for the wor. His grandfather rushed to and fro in arch of new physicians, yet they proved uless. And when pure ginng was prescribed this was beyond Jia Dairu’s means: he had to ask for help from the Rong Mansion. Lady Wang told Xifeng to weigh out two ounces for him. “All our recent supply was ud the other day in the old lady’s medicine,” said Xifeng. “You told me to keep the remaining whole roots for General Yang’s wife, and as it happens I nt them round yesterday.” “If we’ve none, nd to your mother-in-law’s for some. Or your Cousin Zhen’s houhold may let us have what’s needed. If you can save the young man’s life, that will be a good deed.” But instead of doing as she was told, Xifeng scraped together less than an ounce of inferior scraps which she dispatched with the message that this was all Her Ladyship had. To Lady Wang, however, she reported that she had collected two ounces and nt them over. Jia Rui was so anxious to recover that there was no medicine he would not try, but all the money spent in this way was wasted. One day a lame Taoist priest came begging for alms and profess to have specialized in curing dias due to retribution. Jia Rui heard him from his sick-bed. At once, kowtowing on his pillow he loudly implored his rvants to bring the priest in. When they complied he ized hold of the Taoist and cried: “Save me, Bodhisattva! Save me!” “No medicine can cure your illness,” rejoined the Taoist gravely. “However, I can give you a precious object which will save your life if you look at it every day.” He took from his wallet a mirror polished on both sides and engraved on its handle with the inscription: Precious Mirror of Love. “This comes from the Hall of the Illusory Spirit in the Land of Great Void,” he told Jia Rui. “It was made by the Goddess of Dinchantment to cure illness resulting from lust. Since it has the power to prerve men’s lives, I brought it to the world for the u of intelligent, handsome, high-minded young gentlemen. But you must only look into the back of the mirror. On no account look into the front — remember that! I shall come back for it in three days’ time, by when you should be cured.” He strode off then before anyone could stop him. “This is a strange business,” reflected Jia Rui. “Let me try looking at this Taoist’s mirror and e what happens.” He picked it up and looked into the back. Horrors! A skeleton was standing there! Hastily covering it, he swore, “Confound that Taoist giving me such a fright! But let me e what’s on the other side.” He turned the mirror over and there inside stood Xifeng, beckoning to him. In raptures he was wafted as if by magic into the mirror, where he indulged with his beloved in the sport of cloud and rain, after which she saw him out. He found himlf back in his bed and opened his eyes with a cry. The mirror had slipped from his hands and the side with the skeleton was expod again. Although sweating profuly after his wet dream, the young man was not satisfied. He turned the mirror over again, Xifeng beckoned to him as before, and in he went. But after this had happened four times and he was about to leave her for the fourth time, two men came up, fastened iron chains upon him and proceeded to drag him away. He cried out:red是什么意思 “Let me take the mirror with me!” The were the last words he uttered. The attendants had simply obrved him look into the mirror, let it fall and then open his eyes and pick it up again. This time, however, when the mirror fell he did not stir. They presd round and saw that he had breathed his last. The sheet under his thighs was cold and wet. At once they laid him out and made ready the bier, while his grandparents gave way to uncontrollable grief and curd the Taoist. “This devilish mirror!” swore Jia Dairu. “It must be destroyed before it does any more harm.” He ordered it to be thrown into the fire. A voice from the mirror cried out: “Who told you to look at the front? It’s you who’ve taken fal for true. Why should you burn me?” That same instant in hustled the lame Taoist, shouting, “I can’t let you destroy the Precious Mirror of Love!” Rushing forward he snatched it up, then was off like the wind. Jia Dairu lost no time in preparing for the funeral, notifying all concerned that sutras would be chanted in three days’ time and the funeral would take place in ven. The coffin would be left in Iron Threshold Temple until it could be taken to their old home. All the members of the clan came to offer condolences. Jia She and Jia Zheng of the Rong Mansion contributed twenty taels each towards the expens, and Jia Zhen of the Ning Mansion did the same. Others gave three or five taels according to their means, while the families of Jia Rui’s schoolmates collected another twenty or thirty taels. So Jia Dairu, although not well-off, was able to conduct the funeral in style. And then, at the end of winter, a letter came from Lin Ruhai saying that he was riously ill and wished to have his daughter nt home. This incread the Lady Dowager’s distress, but they had to prepare with all speed for Daiyu’s departure; and although Baoyu was most upt he could hardly come between her and her father. The Lady Dowager decided that Jia Lian should accompany her granddaughter and bring her safely back. We need not dwell on the prents and arrangements for the journey, which naturally left nothing to be desired. A day was quickly chon on which Jia Lian and Daiyu took their leave of everyone and, accompanied by attendants, t sail for Yangzhou. For further details, read the next chapter. | CHAPTER 12 Wang Xi-feng ts a trapfor her admirer And Jia Rui looks into 在线翻译文章idead the wrong side of the mirror Jia Rui’s arrival was announced while Xi-feng and Patience were still talking about him. ‘Ask him in,’ said Xi-feng. Hearing that he was to be received, Jia Rui rejoiced inwardly. He came into the room wreathed in smiles and overwhelmed Xi-feng with civilities. With feigned solicitude she presd him to be ated and to take tea. jollyHe became quite ecstatic at the sight of her informal dress. ‘Why isn’t Cousin Lian back yet?’ he asked, staring with fascinated eyes. ‘I don’t know what the reason can be,’ said Xi-feng. ‘Could it be,’ Jia Rui inquired archly, ‘that Someone has detained him on his way home and that he can’t tear himlf away?’ Men are all the same!’ said Xi-feng. ‘They have only to t eyes on a woman to begin another affair.’ ‘Ah, there you are wrong!’ said Jia Rui. ‘I am not that sort of man.’ ‘But how many men are there like you?’ said Xi-feng. ‘I doubt you could find one in ten.’ At this last remark Jia Rui positively scratched his ears with pleasure. ‘You must find it very dull here on your own every day,’ he said. ‘Yes, indeed!’ said Xi-feng. ‘If only there were someone who could come and talk to me and help me to pass the time!’ ‘Well,’ said Jia Rui, ‘I am always free. How would it be if I were to come every day to help you pass the time?’ ‘You must be joking!’ said Xi-feng. ‘What would you want to come here for?’ ‘I mean every word I say,’ said Jia Rui. ‘May I be struck by lightning if I don’t! True, there was a time when I should have been scared to come, becau people always told me what a holy terror you were and how dangerous it was to cross you; but now I know that in reality you are all gentleness and flin, there is nothing that could stop me coming. I would come now if it cost me my life.’ ‘It’s true then,’ said Xi-feng, smiling delightedly. ‘You really are an understanding sort of person - so much more so than Rong or Qiang! I ud to think that since they were such handsome and cultured4ooking young men they must be understanding as well, but they turned out to be stupid brutes without the least consideration for other people’s feelings.’ This little speech went straight to Jia Rui’s heart, and unconsciously he began edging his at nearer to Xi-feng’s. He peered cloly at an embroidered pur that she was wearing and expresd a strong interest in one of her rings. ‘Take care!’ said Xi-feng in a low tone. ‘The rvants might e you!’ Obedient to his goddess’s command, Jia Rui quickly drew back again. Xi-feng laughed. ‘You had better go!’ ‘Ah no, cruel cousin! Let me stay a little longer!’ ‘Even if you stay, it’s not very convenient here in broad daylight, with people coming and going all the time. Go away now and come hack later when it’s dark, at the beginning of the first watch. You can slip into the gallery west of this apartment and wait for me there.’ Jia Rui received the words like someone being prented with a rare and costly jewel. ‘Are you sure you’re not joking ?’he asked hurriedly. ‘A lot of people must go through that way. How should we avoid being en?’ ‘Don’t worry!’ said Xi-feng. ‘I’ll give the watchmen a night off. When the side gates are clod, no one el can get through.’ Jia Rui was beside himlf with delight and hurriedly took his leave, confident that the fu1filment of all he wished for was now in sight. Having waited impatiently for nightfall, he groped his way into the Rong-guo mansion just before they clod the gates and slipped into the gallery, now totally derted—as Xi-feng had promid it would be—and black as pitch. The gate at the end of the alley-way opening on to Grandmother Jia’s quarters had already been barred on the outer side; only the gate at the east end remained open. For a long time Jia Rui listened intently, but no one came. Suddenly there was a loud slam and the gate at the east end, too, banged shut. Alarmed, but not daring to make a sound, Jia Rui stealthily crept out and tried it. It was locked—as tight as a bucket. Now even if he wanted to get out he could not, for the walls on either side of the alley-way were too high to scale. Moreover the gallery was bare and draughty and this was the midwinter ason when the nights are long and the bitter north wind ems to pierce into the very marrow of the bones. By the end of the night he was almost dead with cold. When at last morning came, Jia Rui saw the gate at the east end open and an old woman pass through to the gate opposite and call for someone to open up. Still hugging himlf against the cold, he sprinted out of the other gate while her back was towards him. Fortunately no one was about at that early hour, and he was able to slip out of the rear entrance of the mansion and run back home unen. Jia Rui had lost both of his parents in infancy and had been brought up under the sole guardianship of his grandfather Jia Dai-ru. Obsd by the fear that once outside the hou his grandson might indulge in drinking and gambling to the detriment of his studies, Dai-ru had subjected him since early youth to an iron discipline from which not the slightest deviation was tolerated. Seeing him now suddenly abnt himlf a whole night from home, and being incapable, in his wildest imaginings, of guessing what had really happened, he took it as a foregone conclusion that he had been either drinking or gaming and had probably pasd the night in some hou of prostitution - a supposition which caud the old gentleman to spend the whole night in a state of extreme choler. The prospect of facing his grandfather on arrival made Jia Rui sweat. A lie of some sort was indispensable. ‘I went to e Uncle yesterday,’ he managed to say, ‘and M it was getting dark, he asked me to stay the night.’ ‘I have always told you that you are not to go out of that gate without first informing me,’ said his grandfather. ‘Why then did you presume to go off on your own yesterday without saying a word to anybody? That in itlf would constitute sufficient grounds for chastiment. But in addition to that you are lying!’ Thereupon he, forced him to the ground, and, with the utmost savagery, dealt him thirty or forty whacks with the bamboo, after which he forbade him to eat and made him kneel in the open courtyard with a book in his hand until he had prepared the equivalent of ten days’ homework. The exquisite torments suffered by Jia Rui, as he knelt with an empty stomach in the draughty courtyard reciting his home-work after having already been frozen all night long and then beaten, can be imagined. Yet even now his infatuation remained unaltered. It never entered his mind that he had been made a fool of. And so two days later, as soon as he had some free time, he was back once more looking for Xi-feng. She deliberately reproached him for having failed her, thereby so exasperating him that he swore by the most terrible oaths that he had been faithful. Seeing him hurl himlf so willingly into the net, Xi-feng decided that a further lesson would be needed to cure him of his folly and propod another assignation. ‘Only tonight,’ she said, ‘don’t wait for me in that place again. Wait in the empty room in the little passage-way behind this apartment. But mind you don’t run into anybody.’ ‘Do you really mean this?’ said Jia Rui. ‘If you don’t believe me, don’t come!’ ‘I’ll come! I’ll come!’ said Jia Rui. ‘Whatever happens, I shall be there.’ ‘Now I think you had better go.’ Confident of eing her again in the evening, Jia Rui went off uncomplainingly, leaving Xi-feng time to muster her forces, brief her officers, and prepare the trap in which the luckless man was to be caught. Jia Rui waited for the evening with great impatience. By a stroke of bad luck some relations came on a visit and stayed to supper. It was already lamplight when they left, and Jia Rui then had to wait for his grandfather to ttle down for the night before he could scuttle off to the Rong mansion and make his way to the room in the little passage-way where Xi-feng had told him to go. He waited there for her arrival with the frenzied agitation of an ant on a hot saucepan. Yet, though he waited and waited, not a human shape appeared nor a human sound was heard, and he began to be frightened and a little suspicious: ‘Surely she won’t fall me? Surely I shan’t be made to spend another night in ?’ As he was in the midst of the gloomy imaginings, a dark figure glided into the room. Certain that it must be Xi-feng, Jia Rui cast all caution to the winds and, when the figure approached him, threw himlf upon it like a hungry tiger izing its prey or a cat pouncing on a harmless mou. ‘My darling, how I have waited for you!” he exclaimed, enfolding his beloved in his arms; and carrying her to the kang, he laid her down and began kissing her and tugging at her trours, murmuring ‘my sweetest darling’ and ‘my honey love’ and other such endearments in between kiss. Through-out all of this not a single sound was uttered by his partner. Jia Rui now tore down his own trours and prepared to thrust home his hard and throbbing; member. Suddenly a light flashed - and there was Jia Qiang holding aloft a candle in a candlestick which he shone around: ‘Who is in this room?’ At this the person on the kang gave a giggle: ‘Uncle Rui is trying to bugger me!’ Horrors I The sight he saw when he looked down made Jia Rui want to sink into the ground. It was Jia Rong! He turned to bolt, but Jia Qiang held him fast. ‘Oh no you don’t! Auntie Lian has already told Lady Wang that you have been pestering her. She asked us to keep you here while she went to tell. When lady Wang first heard, she was so angry that she fainted, but now she’s come round again and ;s asking for you to be brought to her. Come along, then! Off we go!’ At the words Jia Rui’s soul almost left its at in his body. ‘My dear nephew, just tell her that you didn’t find me here!’ he said. ‘Tomorrow I will reward you handsomely.’ ‘I suppo I could let you go easily enough,’ said Jia Qiang. ‘The question is, how big would this reward be? In any ca, just saying that you will give me a reward is no good. I should want a written guarantee.’ ‘But I can’t put a thing like this down in writing!’ ‘No problem there,’ said Jia Qiang. ‘just say that you’ve lost money gambling and have borrowed such and such an amount to cover your loss. That’s all you need do.’ ‘I could do that, certainly,’ said Jia Rui. Jia Qiang at once disappeared and reappeared only a moment later with paper and a writing-brush which had evidently been made ready in advance. Writing at his dictation Jia Rui was compelled, in spite of protests, to put down fifty taels of silver as the amount on the IOU. The document, having been duly signed, was at once pocketed by Jia Qiang, who then pretended to ek the connivance of Jia Rong. But Jia Rong feigned the most obdurate incorruptibility and insisted that he would lay the matter next day before a council of the whole clan and e that justice was done. Jia Rui became quite frantic and kotowed to him. Finally, under pressure from Jia Qiang and in return for another IOU for fifty taels of silver made out in his favour, he allowed his scruples to be overcome. ‘You realize, don’t you,’ said Jia Qiang, ‘that I’m going to get into trouble for this? Now let’s e. The gate leading to Lady Jia’s courtyard was bolted some time ago, and Sir Zheng is at the moment in the main reception room looking at some stuff that has just arrived from Nanking, so you can’t go through that way. The only way left would be through the back gate. The trouble is, though, that if you leave now, you might run into someone on the way, and then I should get into even wor trouble. You’d better let me scout around a bit first and come for you when the coast is clear. In the meantime you can t hide here, though, becau they will shortly be coming in to store the stuff from Nanking here. I’ll find somewhere el for you.’ He took Jia Rui by the arm, and having first blown the candle out, led him into the courtyard and groped his way round to the underside of the steps which led up to the terrace of the central building. ‘This hollow under the steps will do. Crouch down there, and don’t make a sound! You can go when I come for you. Jia Qiang and Jia Rong then went off leaving him to himlf. Jia Rui, by now a mere automaton in the hands of his captors, obediently crouched down beneath the steps and was just beginning a ries of calculations respecting his prent financial predicament when a sudden slosh! signalled the discharge of a slop-pail’s stinking contents immediately above his head, drenching him from top to toe with liquid filth and causing him to cry out in dismay - but only momentarily, for the excrement covered his face and head and caud him to clo his mouth again in a hurry and crouch silent and shivering in the icy cold. Just then Jia Qiang came running up: ‘Hurry! hurry! You can go now.’ At the word of command Jia Rui bounded out of his hole and sprinted for dear life through the rear gate and back to his own home. It was now past midnight, and he had to shout for someone to let him in. When the rvant who answered the gate saw the state he was in and asked him how it had happened, he had to pretend that he had been out in the darkness to ea himlf and had fallen into the jakes. Then rushing into his own room he stripped off his clothes and washed, his mind running all the time on how Xi-feng had tricked him. The thought of her trickery provoked a surge of hatred in his soul; yet even as he hated her, the vision of her loveliness made him long to clasp her to his breast. Torn by the violent and conflicting emotions, he pasd the whole night without a single wink of sleep. From that time on, though he longed for Xi-feng with unabated passion, he never dared to visit the Rong-guo mansion again. Jia Rong and Jia Qiang, on the other hand, came frequently to his hou to ask for their money, so that he was in constant dread of his grandfather finding out about the IOUs. Unable, even now, to overcome his longing for Xi-feng, saddled with a heavy burden of debt, harasd during the daytime by the schoolwork t him by his exacting grandfather, worn-out during the nights by the excessive hand-pumping inevitable in an unmarried man of twenty who mistress was both unattainable and constantly in his thoughts, twice frozen, tormented and forced to flee - what constitution could withstand so many shocks and strains without succumbing in the end to illness? The symptoms of Jia Rui’s illness—a palpitation in the heart, a loss of taste in the mouth, a weakness in the hams, a smarting in the eyes, feverishness by night and lassitude by day, albumen in the urine and blood-flecks in the phlegm—had all manifested themlves within less than a year. By that time they had produced a complete breakdown and driven him to his bed, where he lay, with eyes tight shut, babbling deliriously and inspiring terror in all who saw him. Physicians were called in to treat him and some bushels of cinnamon bark, autumn root, turtle-shell, black leek and Solomon’s al must at one time and another have been in-fud and taken without the least obrvable effect. Winter went and spring came and Jia Rui’s sickness grew even wor. His grandfather Dai-ru was in despair. Medical advice from every quarter had been taken and none of it had proved effective. The most recent advice was that the patient should be given a pure decoction of ginng without admixture of other ingredients. So costly a remedy was far beyond Dai-ru’s resources and he was obliged to go to the Rong-guo mansion to beg. Lady Wang ordered Wang Xi-feng to weigh out two ounces for him from their own supplies. ‘The other day when we were making up a new lot of pills for Grandmother,’ said Xi-feng, ‘you told me to keep any of the remaining whole roots for a medicine you were nding to General Yang’s wife. I nt her the medicine yesterday, sol am afraid we haven’t any left.’ ‘Well, even if we haven’t got any,’ said Lady Wang, ‘you can nd to your mother-in-law’s for some; and probably they will have some at your Cousin Zhen’s. Between you you ought somehow or other to be able to rai enough to give him. If you can save a man’s life by doing so, you will have performed a work of merit.’ But though Xi-feng pretended to do as Lady Wang suggested, in fact she made no such inquiries. She merely scraped a few drams of broken bits together and nt them to Dai-ru with a message that ‘Lady Wang had instructed her to nd this, and it was all they had.’ To Lady Wang, however, she reported that she had asked the others and altogether obtained more than two ounces of ginng which she had nt to Dai-ru. Jia Rui now wanted desperately to live and eagerly swallowed every medicine that they offered him; but all was a waste of money, for nothing emed to do him any good. One day a lame Taoist appeared at the door asking for alms and claiming to be able to cure retributory illness. Jia Rui, who chanced to overhear him, called out from his bed: ‘Quick, tell the holy man to come in and save me!’ and as he called, he kotowed with his head on the pillow. The rvants were obliged to bring the Taoist into the bedroom. Jia Rui clung to him tenaciously. ‘Holy one, save me!’ he cried out again and again. The Taoist sighed. ‘No medicine will cure your sickness. However, I have a precious thing here that I can lend you which, if you will look at it every day, can be guaranteed to save your life.’ So saying, he took from his satchel a mirror which had reflecting surfaces on both its sides. The words A MIRROR FOR THE ROMANTIC were inscribed on the back. He handed it to Jia Rui. ‘This object comes from the Hall of Emptiness in the Land of Illusion. It was fashioned by the fairy Dinchantment as an antidote to the ill effects of impure mental activity. It has life-giving and restorative properties and has been brought into the world for the contemplation of tho intelligent and handsome young gentlemen who hearts are too susceptible to the charms of beauty. I lend it to you on one important condition: you must only look into the back of the mirror. Never, never under any circumstances look into the front. Three days hence I shall come again to reclaim it, by which time I guarantee that your illness will have gone.’ With that he left, at a surprising speed, ignoring the earnest entreaties of tho prent that he should stay longer. ‘This is intriguing!’ Jia Rui thought to himlf when the Taoist gave him the mirror. ‘Let me try looking into it as he says, and holding it up to his face he looked into the back as instructed and saw a grinning skull, which he covered up hastily with a cur: ‘Silly old fool, to scare me like that! - But let me e what happens when I look into the other side!’ He turned the mirror round and looked, and there inside was Xi-feng beckoning to him to enter, and his ravished soul floated into the mirror after her. There they performed the act of love together, after which she saw him out again. But when he found himlf once more back in his bed he stared and cried out in horror: for the mirror, of its own accord, had turned itlf round in his hand and the same grinning skull faced him that he had en before. He could feel the sweat trickling all over his body and lower down in the bed a little pool of men that he had just ejaculated. Yet still he was not satisfied, and turned the face of the mirror once more towards him. Xi-feng was there beckoning to him again and calling, and again he went in after her. He did this three or four times. But the last time, just as he was going to return from the mirror, two figures approached him holding iron chains which they fastened round him and by which they proceeded to drag him away. He cried out as they dragged him: ‘Walt! Let me take the mirror with me . . .! Tho were the last words he ever uttered. To tho who stood around the bed and watched him while this was happening he appeared first to be holding up the mirror and looking into it, then to let it drop; then to open his eyes in a ghastly stare and pick it up again; then, as it once more fell from his grasp, he finally cead to move. When they examined him more cloly they found that his breathing had already stopped and that underneath his body there was a large, wet, icy patch of recently ejaculated men. At once they lifted him from the bed and busied themlves with the laying-out, while old Dai-ru and his wife abandoned themlves to a paroxysm of grief. They curd the Taoist for a necromancer and ordered the rvants to heap up a fire and cast the mirror upon the flames. But just at that moment a voice was heard in the air saying, ‘Who told him to look in the front? It is you who are to blame, for confusing the unreal with the real! Why then should you burn my mirror ?’ Suddenly the mirror was en to ri up and fly out of the room, and when Dai-ru went outside to look, there was the lame Taoist asking for it back. He snatched it as it flew towards him and disappeared before Dai-ru’s very eyes. Seeing that there was to be no redress, Dai-yu was obliged to t about preparing for the funeral and began by announcing his grandson’s death to everybody concerned. Reading of the sutras began on the third day and on the venth the coffin was drawn in procession to temporary lodging in the Temple of the Iron Threshold to await future reburial. The various members of the Jia family all came in due cour to offer their condolences. From the Rong-guo side Jia She and Jia Zheng each gave twenty taels of silver and from the Ning-guo side Cousin Zhen also gave twenty taels. The other members of the clan gave amounts varying from one to four taels according to their means. A collection made among the parents of the dead man’s fellow-students raid an additional twenty or thirty taels. Although Dai-ru’s means were slender, with so much monetary help coming in he was able to perform the whole business in considerable style. Towards the end of the year in which Jia Rui’s troubles started Lin Ru-hai fell riously ill and wrote a letter asking to e Dai-yu again. Though Grandmother Jia was plunged into deepest gloom by the letter, she was obliged to prepare with all possible expedition for her granddaughter’s departure. And Bao-yu, though he too was distres8ed at the prospect of Dai-yu’s leaving him, could scarcely ek to interfere in a matter affecting the natural feelings of a father and his child. Grandmother Jia insisted that Jia Lian should accompany Dai-yu and e her safely there and back. The various gifts to be taken and the journey-money were, it goes without saying, duly prepared. A suitable day on which to commence the journey was quickly determined and Jia Lian and Dai-yu took leave of all the rest and, embarking with their attendants, t sail for Yangchow. If you wish for further details, you may learn them in the following chapter |
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