Eastern Shame Girl Part 2

Li Chia exclaimed in his delight and surprise:

"If I had not met such generosity, I should have had no choice but to wander, and at last to die without burial. Even when my hair turns white, I shall not forget such virtue and such friends.h.i.+p."

And he shed tears of emotion, until s.h.i.+h-niang consoled him by, diverting his thoughts.

Some days later they reached Kua-chow, where the big junk stopped. But Li Chia was now able to hire a smaller vessel for themselves alone, and in this he stowed their baggage. On the morrow they were to travel across the great river.

It was then the second quarter of the second month of winter. The moon shone like water. The pair were sitting on the deck of the junk, and the boy said:

"Since we left the capital we have not been able to talk freely, because we were in a cabin and our neighbors could hear us. Now we are alone on our own junk. Also, we have left the cold of the North and will to-morrow be on the south side of the river. Is it not a fitting time to drink and rejoice, so as to forget our former sorrows? You to whom I owe so much, what do you say?"

"It is now long since your slave was deprived of little pleasantries and laughters, and she had the same sentiment as yourself. Your words prove that we have but one soul."

They brought wine on deck; and, seated on a carpet beside his mistress, he offered her cups.

So they drank joyously, until they were a little drunk; and at length he said:

"O my benefactress, your voice of marvel used to trouble the six theatres. Every time I heard you then, my spirit took wing from me.

It is long since you have overcome me in that way. The moon is bright over the s.h.i.+mmering river. The night is deep and solitary. Will you not consent to favor me with a song?"

For a little, s.h.i.+h-niang refused. Then she looked at the moon, and a song escaped her. It was an affecting melody, taken from one of the pieces of the Yuan dynasty, called "The Light Rose of the Peaches." In truth:

Her voice took flight to the Milky Way, And the clouds stopped to listen.

Its echo fell into the deep water and the fishes hastened.

s.h.i.+h-niang sang. And in a near-by junk there was a young man called Sun; his first name was Fu, Rich, and his surname was Shan-lai, Excellent-in-Promise. His family was one of the wealthiest in Hsin-an of Hui-chow; his ancestors had owned the salt monopoly in Yang-chow.

He was just twenty years old, and had moulded his character in accordance with his pa.s.sion, being a regular visitor at the blue pavilions, where the smiles of painted roses are to be bought. He was making a journey, and had cast anchor for the night at Kua-chow. He was drinking in solitude, bemoaning the absence of companions.

Suddenly in the night he heard a voice more sweet than the sighs of the bird of pa.s.sion, or than the warbling phoenix. No words seemed adequate, he felt, to describe the beauty of this song. Walking out from his cabin, he found that the music came from a junk not very far distant from his own.

In his eagerness to know who had enchanted him, he told his men to go and question the boatmen. But he learned no more than that the junk had been hired by Li Chia. He obtained no information concerning the singer. He reflected:

"Such a perfect voice could not belong to a woman of good family. How can I manage to see this bird?"

He could not sleep that night. In the morning, at about the fifth watch, he heard the wind roaring on the water. The light of day was strangely veiled by cloud, and flakes of snow were whirling madly. It has been said;

The clouds are swallowing Countless thousands of trees upon the hill.

Footprints disappear on many footpaths.

The fisher in the bamboo hat On the frail boat Catches only snow and the frozen river.

This snowstorm rendered it impossible to cross the river, and the boats could not be set in motion. Sun, therefore, told his rowers to leave his moorings and to make fast alongside Li Chia's junk. Then, in a sable bonnet and wrapped in his fox-skin robe, he opened his cabin window, pretending to look at the white snow as it fell. s.h.i.+h-niang had just arranged her hair, and, with her tapering fingers, was pus.h.i.+ng back the short curtains to throw out the dregs of tea in the bottom of her cup. The freshened splendor of her rouge shone softly.

Sun saw that celestial beauty, that incantation; he scented that perfume; and his soul boiled over. For a long moment he gazed, and his spirit was as if submerged. But he recovered himself and, leaning out of the window, recited, nearly at full voice, the poem of the "Blossom of the Plum Tree":

Snow covers the mountain where the Sage abides, Under the trees in the moonlight Beauty advances.

Li Chia heard the poem and came out of his cabin, curious to see who was reciting it. In this way he fell into the trap set by Sun, who hastened to salute him, asking:

"Old-Elder-Brother, what is your honorable name? And what is your first name which one does not presume to repeat?"

Having answered in accordance with the convention, Li Chia had to question Sun in his turn. They exchanged such words as are customary between educated men. Finally the libertine said:

"This snowstorm was sent by Heaven to effect our meeting. It is a large piece of fortune for your little brother. I was lonely and without diversion in my cabin. Would it not be my venerable brother's pleasure that we should go to a riverside pavilion and divert ourselves by drinking wine?"

Li Chia answered:

"The water-chestnuts meet at the caprice of the current. How should I not be glad of this offer?"

"Between the four seas all men are brothers."

Then Sun ordered his servant to come with him, sheltering Li Chia under a large parasol. The two men saluted each other again, landed on the bank and, after walking a little distance, found a wine pavilion.

Having entered, they chose seats by the window and sat down. The attendant brought them hot wine, Sun raised his cup to give the signal, and soon the two were conversing freely and had become friends. At length Sun leaned forward and said in a low voice:

"Last night a song arose from your honorable s.h.i.+p. Whose was that voice?"

Wis.h.i.+ng to pose as a man of leisure making a journey, Li Chia at once told the truth:

"It was Tu s.h.i.+h-niang, the famous singing girl of Peking."

"How comes a singing girl to belong to my brother?"

Li Chia then ingeniously told his story, and the other said:

"To marry such a beauty is exceptional good fortune. But will your honorable father be satisfied?"

Li sighed and answered:

"There is no lack of anxiety in my humble house. My father is of a very stern disposition, and as yet knows nothing."

Sun, developing his hidden traps, continued:

"If your honorable father is not placable, where will my Elder-Brother shelter the Beauty whom he has carried away? Have you come to some arrangement with her on this point?"

With heavy brows, La answered:

"My little wife and I have already discussed the matter."

"Your Honorable Favor has doubtless some admirable plan?"

"Her ideas," explained La, "is to remain for the time at a place in the country of Su and Hang, whilst I go forward to my family and ask my friends and relations to appease my father."

The other gave a deep sigh and a.s.sumed a saddened air:

"Our friends.h.i.+p is not yet deep enough. I fear that you may consider my words both strange and too outspoken."

"When I have the good fortune to receive your learned and enlightening counsel, how could I fail to respect it?"