"The flower dropped, and a huge melon formed."
old goody Liu observed, while gesticulating with both her hands by way of ill.u.s.tration.
The party once more exploded in loud merriment.
But, reader, if you entertain any curiosity to hear what else was said during the banquet, listen to the explanation given in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XLI.
Chia Pao-yu tastes tea in the Lung Ts"ui monastery.
Old goody Liu gets drunk and falls asleep in the I Hung court.
Old goody Liu, so the story goes, exclaimed, while making signs with both hands,
"The flower dropped and a huge melon formed;"
to the intense amus.e.m.e.nt of all the inmates, who burst into a boisterous fit of laughter. In due course, however, she drank the closing cup. Then she made another effort to evoke merriment. "To speak the truth to-day,"
she smilingly observed, "my hands and my feet are so rough, and I"ve had so much wine that I must be careful; or else I might, by a slip of the hand, break the porcelain cups. If you have got any wooden cups, you"d better produce them. It wouldn"t matter then if even they were to slip out of my hands and drop on the ground!"
This joke excited some more mirth. But lady Feng, upon hearing this speedily put on a smile. "Well," she said, "if you really want a wooden one, I"ll fetch you one at once! But there"s just one word I"d like to tell you beforehand. Wooden cups are not like porcelain ones. They go in sets; so you"ll have to do the right thing and drink from every cup of the set."
"I just now simply spoke in jest about those cups in order to induce them to laugh," old goody Liu at these words, mused within herself, "but, who would have thought that she actually has some of the kind.
I"ve often been to the large households of village gentry on a visit, and even been to banquets there and seen both gold cups and silver cups; but never have I beheld any wooden ones about! Ah, of course! They must, I expect, be the wooden bowls used by the young children. Their object must be to inveigle me to have a couple of bowlfuls more than is good for me! But I don"t mind it. This wine is, verily, like honey, so if I drink a little more, it won"t do me any harm."
Bringing this train of thought to a close, "Fetch them!" she said aloud.
"We"ll talk about them by and bye."
Lady Feng then directed Feng Erh to go and bring the set of ten cups, made of bamboo roots, from the book-case in the front inner room. Upon hearing her orders, Feng Erh was about to go and execute them, when Yuan Yang smilingly interposed. "I know those ten cups of yours," she remarked, "they"re small. What"s more, a while back you mentioned wooden ones, and if you have bamboo ones brought now, it won"t look well; so we"d better get from our place that set of ten large cups, scooped out of whole blocks of aspen roots, and pour the contents of all ten of them down her throat?"
"Yes, that would be much better," lady Feng smiled.
The cups were then actually brought by a servant, at the direction of Yuan Yang. At the sight of them, old goody Liu was filled with surprise as well as with admiration. Surprise, as the ten formed one set going in gradation from large to small; the largest being amply of the size of a small basin, the smallest even measuring two of those she held in her hand. Admiration, as they were all alike, engraved, in perfect style, with scenery, trees, and human beings, and bore inscriptions in the "gra.s.s" character as well as the seal of the writer.
"It will be enough," she consequently shouted with alacrity, "if you give me that small one."
"There"s no one," lady Feng laughingly insinuated, "with the capacity to tackle these! Hence it is that not a soul can pluck up courage enough to use them! But as you, old dame, asked for them, and they were fished out, after ever so much trouble, you"re bound to do the proper thing and drink out of each, one after the other."
Old goody Liu was quite taken aback. "I daren"t!" she promptly demurred.
"My dear lady, do let me off!"
Dowager lady Chia, Mrs. Hsueh and Madame w.a.n.g were quite alive to the fact that a person advanced in years as she was could not be gifted with such powers of endurance, and they hastened to smilingly expostulate.
"To speak is to speak, and a joke is a joke, but she mayn"t take too much," they said; "let her just empty this first cup, and have done."
"O-mi-to-fu!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed old goody Liu. "I"ll only have a small cupful, and put this huge fellow away, and take it home and drink at my leisure."
At this remark, the whole company once more gave way to laughter. Yuan Yang had no alternative but to give in and she had to bid a servant fill a large cup full of wine. Old goody Liu laid hold of it with both hands and raised it to her mouth.
"Gently a bit!" old lady Chia and Mrs. Hsueh shouted. "Mind you don"t choke!"
Mrs. Hsueh then told lady Feng to put some viands before her. "Goody Liu!" smiled lady Feng, "tell me the name of anything you fancy, and I"ll bring it and feed you."
"What names can I know?" old goody Liu rejoined. "Everything is good!"
"Bring some egg-plant and salt-fish for her!" dowager lady Chia suggested with a smile.
Lady Feng, upon hearing this suggestion, complied with it by catching some egg-plant and salt-fish with two chopsticks and putting them into old goody Liu"s mouth. "You people," she smiled, "daily feed on egg-plants; so taste these of ours and see whether they"ve been nicely prepared or not."
"Don"t be making a fool of me!" old goody Liu answered smilingly. "If egg-plants can have such flavour, we ourselves needn"t sow any cereals, but confine ourselves to growing nothing but egg-plants!"
"They"re really egg-plants!" one and all protested. "She"s not pulling your leg!"
Old goody Liu was amazed. "If these be actually egg-plants," she said, "I"ve uselessly eaten them so long! But, my lady, do give me a few more; I"d like to taste the next mouthful carefully!"
Lady Feng brought her, in very deed, another lot, and put it in her mouth. Old goody Liu munched for long with particular care. "There is, it"s true, something about them of the flavour of egg-plant," she laughingly remarked, "yet they don"t quite taste like egg-plants. But tell me how they"re cooked, so that I may prepare them in the same way for myself."
"There"s nothing hard about it!" lady Feng answered smiling. "You take the newly cut egg-plants and pare the skin off. All you want then is some fresh meat. You hash it into fine mince, and fry it in chicken fat.
Then you take some dry chicken meat, and mix it with mushrooms, new bamboo shoots, sweet mushrooms, dry beancurd paste, flavoured with five spices, and every kind of dry fruits, and you chop the whole lot into fine pieces. You then bake all these things in chicken broth, until it"s absorbed, when you fry them, to finish, in sweet oil, and adding some oil, made of the grains of wine, you place them in a porcelain jar, and close it hermetically. At any time that you want any to eat, all you have to do is to take out some, and mix it with some roasted chicken, and there it is all ready."
Old goody Liu a shook her head and put out her tongue. "My Buddha"s ancestor!" she shouted. "One wants about ten chickens to prepare this dish! It isn"t strange then that it has this flavour!"
Saying this, she quietly finished her wine. But still she kept on minutely scrutinizing the cup.
"Haven"t you yet had enough to satisfy you?" lady Feng smiled. "If you haven"t, well, then drink another cup."
"Dreadful!" eagerly exclaimed old goody Liu. "I shall be soon getting so drunk that it will be the very death of me. I was only looking at it as I admire pretty things like this! But what a trouble it must have cost to turn out!"
"Have you done with your wine?" Yuan Yang laughingly inquired. "But, after all, what kind of wood is this cup made of?"
"It isn"t to be wondered at," old goody Liu smiled, "that you can"t make it out Miss! How ever could you people, who live inside golden doors and embroidered apartments, know anything of wood! We have the whole day long the trees in the woods as our neighbours. When weary, we use them as our pillows and go to sleep on them. When exhausted, we sit with our backs leaning against them. When, in years of dearth, we feel the pangs of hunger, we also feed on them. Day after day, we see them with our eyes; day after day we listen to them with our ears; day after day, we talk of them with our mouths. I am therefore well able to tell whether any wood be good or bad, genuine or false. Do let me then see what it is!"
As she spoke, she intently scanned the cup for a considerable length of time. "Such a family as yours," she then said, "could on no account own mean things! Any wood that is easily procured, wouldn"t even find a place in here. This feels so heavy, as I weigh it in my hands, that if it isn"t aspen, it must, for a certainty, be yellow cedar."
Her rejoinder amused every one in the room. But they then perceived an old matron come up. After asking permission of dowager lady Chia to speak: "The young ladies," she said, "have got to the Lotus Fragrance pavilion, and they request your commands, as to whether they should start with the rehearsal at once or tarry a while."
"I forgot all about them!" old lady Chia promptly cried with a smile.
"Tell them to begin rehearsing at once!"
The matron expressed her obedience and walked away. Presently, became audible the notes of the pan-pipe and double flute, now soft, now loud, and the blended accents of the pipe and fife. So balmy did the breeze happen to be and the weather so fine that the strains of music came wafted across the arbours and over the stream, and, needless to say, conduced to exhilarate their spirits and to cheer their hearts. Unable to resist the temptation, Pao-yu was the first to s.n.a.t.c.h a decanter and to fill a cup for himself. He quaffed it with one breath. Then pouring another cup, he was about to drain it, when he noticed that Madame w.a.n.g too was anxious for a drink, and that she bade a servant bring a warm supply of wine. "With alacrity, Pao-yu crossed over to her, and, presenting his own cup, he applied it to Madame w.a.n.g"s lips. His mother drank two sips while he held it in his hands, but on the arrival of the warm wine, Pao-yu resumed his seat. Madame w.a.n.g laid hold of the warm decanter, and left the table, while the whole party quitted their places at the banquet; and Mrs. Hsueh too rose to her feet.
"Take over that decanter from her," dowager lady Chia promptly shouted to Li Wan and lady Feng, "and press your aunt into a seat. We shall all then feel at ease!"
Hearing this, Madame w.a.n.g surrendered the decanter to lady Feng and returned to her seat.
"Let"s all have a couple of cups of wine!" old lady Chia laughingly cried. "It"s capital fun to-day!"