CHAPTER 11
The Quiet-voiced Girl provides fantastical material by losing her handkerchief
Jia Yun went out of the Rongguo Mansion and set off for home. He struck off for the house of his maternal uncle. His uncle’s name was Bu Shi-ren. He was the proprietor of a perfumery. “Please Uncle, could you poly let me have four ounces of Barns camphor and four ounces of musk on credit?” Bu Shi-ren harrumphed scornfully: “What do you want it for, anyway? I don’t expect it’s for any serious purpose.” Angrily leaving his uncle’s houehind him, he went on his way back home. He walked head-on into a drunkard. Lo closer he saw that it was his neiour Ni Er. He did not take kindly to being bumped into. “Ni, old chap, don’t hit me! It’s me!” Hearing the voice, Ni Er gave a drunken laugh: “Oh,” he said, “young Mr. Jia. Where have you just come from?” “Don’t ask me!” said Jia Yun bitterly. “I’ve jueen given the run around!” “Never mind!” said Ni Er. “If anyone’een bothering you, Mr. Jia, just tell me and I’ll settle accounts with him for you! You know me. Ni Er, The Drunken Diamond. Anyone in this part of the town troubling a neiour of Diamond’s, I don’t care who he is, I guarantee to put him out of business.” Jia Yun proceeded to give him an account of his interview with Bu Shi-ten. Ni Er was hugely incensed: “I’ve got a few taels of silver here. Here you are. Interest free loan.”
At night, since there were no maids, Baoyu saw that he would have to serve himself. He found himself a cup and waout to take up the pot to pour himself some tea when a voice started spe right behind him: “Let me, Master Bao!” Baoyu jumped. Their conversation was interrupted by the giggles of Ripple and Emerald who had just entered the courtyard with a large bucket of water. The maid hurried out to help them. They stopped to look at this person who had just come from the young Master’s room and saw with some surprise that it was Crimson. They hurried to the other side of the building to find Crimson. “What were you doing in his room just now?” they asked her accusingly. “I wasn’t doing anything,” said Crimson. “I couldn’t find my handkerchief, so I went to look for it round the back.” They were still at their antiphonal taunting when an old woman arrived with a message from Xifeng: “Someone iringing some workmen in tomorrow to plant trees, so you must all be extra careful.” “Who’s the person in charge of the workmen?” asked Ripple. “A young chap called “Yun” from up the Lane,” said the old woman. Crimson knew it mue the young man she had met the day before in the outer study. The name provoked a momentary flutter in her breast.
Another day went by, and Baoyu’s godmother, old Mother Ma, called round. Presently she came to Aunt Zhao’s room. Aunt Zhao said, “It’ll be no different then from what it is now: Huan and I will never be able to compete with the Other One. It’s like the Heavenly Dragon appearing when he comes on the scene. You can understand the grown-upeing silly about him. No, this is the one I can’t stand.” As she uttered the word ‘this’, she held up two fingers. Mother Ma guessed her meaning, saying “Even if you daren’t stand up to her openly, there are things you can do in secret.”
Mother Ma fished out twelve little paper cut-out figures-ten of them demons with green faces and red hair and two of them plain human figures-and handed them to Aunt Zhao. Dropping her voice to a whisper, she instructed her to write the eight ols of her victims’ nativity-two for the year, two for the month, two for the day and two for the hour-on each of the human figures, wrap five of the demons round each of them, and slip them somewhere under her victimeds. “That’s all you have to do,” she said. “hall be doing other things at home to help you. It’s sure to work.”
By the time the thirty-three days’ convalescence had ended, Baoyu’s health and strength were completely restored, and he was allowed to move back into the Garden. At the gate to Wasp Waist Bridge Crimson ran into Trinket, with Jia Yun in tow. His eyes sought Crimson’s; and hers, as she made pretence of conversing with Trinket, sought his.
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