Three

The porters and servants urged the travelers forward, and they started. Liu and the beautiful women escorted them as far as the other side of the Ch'ung-wen gate, and there they drank a last cup together. They separated with tears.

When they reached the river Lu, Li Chia and Shih-niang abandoned the land way and hired a cabin with a large junk which was going to Kua-chow. After he had paid for their passage in advance, there was only a single piece of bronze left in Li Chia's bag; the twenty ounces which Shih-niang had given him had vanished as if they had never been. The young man could not avoid giving certain presents, and he had also bought blankets and other necessities for the journey. Sadly, he asked himself what was to be done, but she said to him,

"My Lord may cease to disturb himself. Our friends have given yet more help."

She opened her metal casket while he looked on in shame. She took out a red silk bag and put it on the table, bidding him open it. He found the bag heavy; for, in fact, it contained fifty ounces of silver. Shih-niang had already shut the casket again, without saying what further was in it. Now she said smilingly,

"Don't our sisters have the most desirable instinct? They did not wish us to have any difficulty on our journey, and in this way they enabled us to cross mountains and rivers."

Li Chia exclaimed in his delight and surprise,

"If I had not met such generosity, I would 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 friendship."

And he shed tears of emotion until Shih-niang consoled him by diverting his thoughts.

Some days later they reached Kua-chow, where the big junk stopped. But Li Chia could now 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 could not 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, 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 shimmering river. The night is deep and solitary. Will you not consent to favor me with a song?"

For a little while, Shih-niang refused. Then she looked at the moon, and a song escaped her. It was an affecting melody, taken from one piece of the Yuan dynasty, called "The Light Rose of the Peaches.":

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.

Shih-niang sang. And in a nearby 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. Just twenty years old, and already shaped by his passion, he was a regular customer at the blue pavilions, where painted roses are sold. As he was on his way to a new destination, he had cast an anchor at Kua-chow for the night. He was drinking alone, bemoaning the absence of companions.

Suddenly, in the night, he heard a voice more sweet than the size of the bird of passion, 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 question the boatmen. But he learned only that Li Chia had hired the junk. He got no information concerning the singer. He reflected:

"Such a perfect voice could not belong to a woman of a wonderful family. How can I 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. Cloud strangely veiled the light of day, and flakes of snow were whirling madly. Some say;

The clouds are swallowing

Countless thousands of trees were 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 they could not set the boats 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 snow as it fell. Shih-niang had just arranged her hair, and, with her tapering fingers, was pushing 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 under the convention, Li Chia had to question Sun in his turn. They exchanged such words as is customary between educated men. Finally, the libertine said:

"Heaven sent this snowstorm to affect 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 ship. Whose was that voice?"

Wishing to pose as a man of leisure making a journey, Li Chia at once told the truth:

"It was Tu Shih-niang, the famous singing girl of Peking."

"How come a singing girl belongs 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, Li answered,

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

"Your Honorable Favor has doubtless some admirable plan?"

"Her ideas," explained Li, "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 assumed a saddened air.

"Our friendship is not yet deep enough. I fear 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 cannot respect it?"

"Your honorable father, being of stern character, is certainly still angry at your conduct in Peking. And now my Elder-Brother marries in the face of convention. How could your prudent relatives and valuable friends cannot share the views of your honorable father? When you rashly ask them to act on your behalf, they will certainly refuse. Then will not the temporary residence of your Honorable Favor become a permanent one? In your position, it will be as difficult to advance as to retire."

Li Chia knew he had only fifty ounces in his purse, and that half this sum would very soon have vanished. He could not help hanging his head. His companion added:

"I have yet another thing to say, and it comes from my heart. Will you hear it?"

"Having already received your sympathetic advice, I shall be most happy to listen."

"Since the earliest times," said Sun, "the hearts of women have been as changeable as the waves of the sea. And among the Flowers-in-the-Mist, especially, there are few who are found faithful. Since the present case concerns a famous singing girl, who knows the whole earth, it is probable that she has some former associates in the regions of the South. She has consequently availed herself of your help to conduct her to the land where this other lives."

"I beg to say that, that is uncertain," protested Li.

"Even if it is not, the men of the South are very adroit and very active. You leave a beautiful woman to live there all alone. Can you guarantee that none will climb her wall or penetrate her dwelling? After all, the relations between father and son are from Heaven and cannot be destroyed. If you abandon your family for the sake of a singing girl, you will wander until you become one of those incorrect Floating-on-the-Wave individuals. A woman is not Heaven. You must ponder this matter seriously."

Hearing this, Li Chia felt as if a torrent swept away from him. At last he answered: "What, in your enlightened opinion, ought I to do?"

"Your servant has a plan which should be very profitable to you. But I fear lest, weakened by the soft pillow of your love, you cannot put it into execution, and that my words will therefore be wasted."

"If you have a really wonderful suggestion, I shall be forever your debtor. Why do you fear speaking?"