The Warning Voice (46 page)

At that moment one of the junior maids from Grandmother Jia's apartment came in. She seemed somewhat out of breath.

‘Her Old Ladyship wants you. I've been ages looking for you. I never thought you would be here.'

Faithful hurried out after her. Jia Lian went inside to see Xi-feng.

Xi-feng had, as a matter of fact, been awake for some time. She had heard Jia Lian make his request but, not liking to intervene, had remained lying where she was. She knew that Faithful had left.

‘Well?' she asked as Jia Lian entered. ‘Is it settled?'

‘Not quite,' said Jia Lian, smiling. ‘As good as. I think if
you
were to go over and have a word with her, it would tip the balance.'

‘It's nothing to do with me, what you get up to,' said Xi-feng. ‘Suppose she does agree. Once you've got your hands on the money, you'll like as not forget all your fine promises and just hang on to her stuff. And what can she do then? Nothing. Then suppose Grandmother finds out? Her confidence in me, that it has taken me all these years to build up, will be completely shattered.'

‘Come on, be an angel!' Jia Lian pleaded. ‘I promise you won't regret it.'.

‘Why, what will you give me?' said Xi-feng.

‘Just say,' said Jia Lian. ‘Anything you like.'

‘
I
know what to ask him for,' said Patience, who had been near at hand listening. ‘You know you said earlier there was something you were planning to do that you would need one or two hundred taels for: ask him to let you have two hundred
taels of the money he raises on pawn. That ought to suit both of you.'

‘Thank you for reminding me,' said Xi-feng. ‘Yes, I will.'

‘You are a terrible woman!' said Jia Lian. ‘Never mind things to pawn, if you had a mind to, you could probably let me have four or five thousand taels
cash
. All I'm asking you to do is say a few words for me – and even for that you want to charge! No wonder you and I –'

Xi-feng leaped to her feet angrily, breaking in before he could finish.

‘Well, what of it? The “four or five thousand taels” is my own money, isn't it? I haven't cheated you Jias out of it. Just about everyone in this establishment nowadays seem to spend their time discussing my shortcomings. It only needed you. Well, they say that when a house is haunted it's one's own ghost that invites the others in. Why do you always assume that any money I have must be Jia money? I haven't noticed that your family is so staggeringly rich. You're not exactly millionaires, are you? We Wangs could probably keep you going for the rest of your lives just with the sweepings from our floor! I don't want to boast, but just take a look at the dowries that Aunt Wang and I brought with us when we came here and try matching them, item for item, with things of your own.'

Jia Lian laughed.

‘How you do fly off the handle! I was only joking. You can have a hundred or two hundred taels
now
if you need them. I couldn't give you much more than that, but that much at least I can manage. Take it now and speak to her when you've spent it. How's that for an offer?'

‘I'm not in
that
much of a hurry,' said Xi-feng. ‘It isn't pennies for a laying-out I'm after.'

‘Bless my soul, what a passion you're in!' said Jia Lian.

Xi-feng laughed.

‘No, I'm not really. But I found what you said just now very wounding. The day after tomorrow is the anniversary of Er-jie's death. Since we were sisters for a little while, I thought the least I could do was visit her grave and make her a few offerings. She didn't give us a son, it's true, but we
mustn't “let the dust of those who have gone before get into the eyes of those who follow”. That's what I wanted the money for.'

Jia Lian said nothing for some moments. Xi-feng had effectively shut him up.

‘You are very thoughtful,' he said eventually. Then, after another pause, ‘Since you won't need the money till the day after tomorrow, we may as well wait and see whether or not Faithful will let us have the things. If she does, you will be able to take what you want after I have pawned them.'

At that moment Brightie's wife came hurrying in.

‘Well?' Xi-feng asked her. ‘Is it settled?'

‘No,' said Brightie's wife. ‘Nothing doing. It's as I said: unless we have your backing for it, we shan't get anywhere.'

‘What's this?' said Jia Lian.

‘Oh, nothing serious,' said Xi-feng. ‘Brightie and his wife have a son who is seventeen this year and not yet married and they wanted to get Lady Wang's Sunset for him. They haven't done anything about it previously, because they didn't know what Lady Wang might have in mind for her. Now it seems that because Sunset has had so much illness during the past year, Lady Wang has sent her back to her parents and said they can choose a husband for her themselves. Brightie's wife asked me if I would speak to the parents on her behalf, but I thought that as the families were so obviously suited, her parents couldn't possibly have any objection to the match and that Brightie and his wife would be able to arrange it themselves. But it seems that I was wrong.'

‘It doesn't matter, does it?' said Jia Lian. ‘Surely there are plenty of others as good as Sunset they could get for him, or even better?'

‘That's as may be, sir,' said Brightie's wife with a somewhat artificial smile, ‘but if people see that we are not even good enough for the likes of them, it doesn't do much for our prestige. I took a lot of trouble choosing that girl for him and I hoped that you and Mrs Lian would be so very kind as to settle the matter for us, for I know you could do so if you wished. But Mrs Lian she said no, there was no need, they'd be sure to agree. Well, I got a woman to speak to the parents
for me, and now she's just come back from them with a flea in her ear. I don't think there's any objection as far as the girl is concerned. I've sounded her out once or twice in the past and as far as I could make out she would be quite willing. It's that stupid old couple with their high and mighty ideas that are the stumbling-block.'

These words were intended to put Jia Lian and Xi-feng on their mettle; but Xi-feng could hardly take the initiative in her husband's presence and watched Jia Lian in silence to see what he would do, whilst Jia Lian for his part had too much on his mind to be bothered with anything so trifling. He would probably have ignored it altogether were it not for the fact that Brightie and his wife were rather special servants. Xi-feng had brought them from her father's house when she was married and they had served her devotedly ever since. Jia Lian realized that to be refused help now that they had openly requested it would be regarded by them as a very great loss of face.

‘Well, it's hardly a matter calling for so much palaver,' he said impatiently. ‘Be on your way now and stop worrying about it! I'll send a couple of senior people tomorrow with the betrothal presents to have a talk with her father and tell him that I am sponsoring the match. If he
still
holds out against it, I'll have him over and talk to him myself.'

Brightie's wife looked questioningly at Xi-feng. In answer to her look Xi-feng made a barely perceptible movement with her lips, whereupon Brightie's wife got down on her knees and made Jia Lian a kotow.

‘It's your mistress you should be kotowing to,' said Jia Lian hurriedly. ‘Although I shall be talking to her father, you'll still have to persuade your mistress to send for the mother and have a word with
her
, otherwise it will seem too much like coercion. After all, you'll want to be on speaking terms with your son's in-laws after the boy is married.'

‘If
you
are prepared to take so much trouble on their behalf, you surely don't think that
I
am going to stand idly by?' said Xi-feng. ‘All right, Brightie's wife, you've heard what we are going to do for
you:
now I want you to do something for me. I want you to ask your husband to chase after all the people
I have lent money to and see to it that all the loan accounts are cleared by the end of this year. Tell him I must have every penny back, or he'll be in trouble! My reputation is quite bad enough already. If I go on lending money at interest for another year, people will be wanting to eat me up alive.'

‘It isn't like you to be so timid, Mrs Lian,' said Brightie's wife, smiling. ‘Who would dare to criticize you? It seems such a shame, after the work we've put into this, to call all the money in again.'

‘I don't want it for myself in any case,' said Xi-feng; ‘it was a means of supplementing the housekeeping, because without it our expenditure was so much greater than our income. Mr Lian's and my allowance for the month, including the allowances for four maids, is less than twenty taels: barely enough to keep us going for four or five days. If I hadn't scraped together a bit of extra on the side, I don't know what sort of hovel we should have been living in by now. And so now I've got myself a bad name. I'm a usurer. Very well, I'll call it all in again and stop lending money altogether.
I
can spend money as fast as anyone else – though how we are supposed to manage if we just all sit back and spend without a thought in our heads for the future I fail to understand. Lady Wang spent two months worrying about how she was going to manage for Her Old Ladyship's birthday. In the end I reminded her about four or five boxes of big, useless bronze things in the rear upstairs store-room and suggested that we should try pawning them. We did, and raised three hundred taels, which was barely enough to tide her over the celebrations. And you know of course about my chiming clock. I sold that for three hundred and sixty taels, but in less than half a month every penny of it had gone into paying bills. Now it seems the menfolk are running short and someone has had the bright idea of trying to get something out of Her Old Ladyship. Another year like this and we shall be pawning our jewellery and our clothes!.'

Brightie's wife laughed.

‘Well, I dare say every one of you ladies has enough jewellery to keep you all for the rest of your lives, if she had a mind to pawn it.'

‘No doubt it's silly of me,' said Xi-feng, ‘but personally I could never bring myself to live like that. – Oh, I must tell you,' she said, changing the subject, ‘I had rather a funny dream last night. Someone – I didn't know who he was, though he looked familiar – came and told me that Her Grace had sent him to ask me for a hundred lengths of brocade. I said “Which Her Grace?”. He told me a name, but it was the wrong one, so I refused. Then he came forward and tried to take the stuff from me by force. That was when I woke up.'

‘That's because your obligations to Her Grace are so much on your mind during the daytime,' said Brightie's wife, laughing.

The words were barely out of her mouth when a messenger from the Palace was announced – a little eunuch sent by Xia Bing-zhong, the eunuch Master of the Bedchamber. Jia Lian frowned when he heard the announcement.

‘I wonder what it is this time? You'd have thought he'd had enough out of us already this year.'

‘Make yourself scarce and let
me
speak to him,' said Xi-feng. ‘If it's only a little thing he wants, we needn't worry; but if it's something big he's after, I think I know how to handle this.'

Jia Lian slipped into one of the side rooms at the back, while Xi-feng gave orders for the little eunuch to be brought in. She made him sit down and accept a cup of tea before inquiring about the purpose of his visit.

‘Daddy Xia saw a house today that he would very much like to buy, but he's two hundred taels short of the price they are asking. He sent me to ask you if you happen to have one or two hundred taels on you you could let him have just for the time being. He will pay you back in a day or two.'

‘Why talk of paying back?' said Xi-feng genially. ‘We've got plenty of money, just help yourselves. Why don't we just say that if
we
are ever short of money, we'll come and borrow some from
you
.'

‘Oh, Daddy Xia also told me to tell you that he still hasn't paid back the twelve hundred taels he owes you from the last two times, but he says he will definitely pay it all back to you by the New Year.'

Xi-feng laughed.

‘Your Daddy Xia is an old fuss-pot, tell him. He really shouldn't worry his head over such trifles. I hope he won't think I am complaining, but if everyone were as scrupulous as he is about paying back the money they owe us, we should be millionaires. About this money he wants now, though: I wonder if I
have
got that much ready cash to give him. He's certainly very welcome to it if I have.'

She called Brightie's wife to her.

‘Pop out and see if you can get two hundred taels for me, will you? It doesn't matter where from.'

Brightie's wife at once caught on to the little game her mistress was playing.

‘I've just been trying to get hold of some,' she said brightly. ‘That's why I'm here. I couldn't get any outside, so I thought
you
might have some.'

‘You people aren't very resourceful,' said Xi-feng crossly. ‘Why is it that when you want money you
always
have to fall back on me?'

She called Patience in.

‘Patience, get out my two gold necklaces and see if you can pawn them for four hundred taels.'

Patience left the room and came back presently with an embroidered box in which were two magnificent collars of jewellery, every bit as fine as any that could be found in the Palace, each carefully wrapped up in a piece of silk brocade. One of them was made of gold wire and pearls the size of lotus-seeds; the other was of kingfisher-feathers and gold, studded with precious stones. She went off with these and returned some time later with the four hundred taels, half of which Xi-feng wrapped up for the little eunuch, while the other half she handed over to Brightie's wife to buy presents for the Mid-Autumn festival with.