On the appointed day, Old Mrs. Bai, Third Master, Third Mistress, Fourth Master, and Fourth Mistress all wanted to go along. Baolu had learned, in a roundabout way, of Fourth Mistress's plot against her. She fumed in secret, determined not to let Fourth Mistress's daughters anywhere near her when she made her entrance. But since she couldn't very well say that she didn't want the girls there, she insisted instead that Liusu go with her. After seven people had been crammed into the taxi­cab, there really wasn't room for any more, so the two girls, Jinzhi and Jinzhan, forlornly stayed behind They left at five o'clock in the afternoon, and didn't return until eleven that evening. How could Jinzhi and Jinzhan relax and go to sleep? They were wide-eyed with anticipation when everyone came home, but no one had anything to say. Baolu walked into Old Mrs. Bai's room with a long face, stripped off all her jewels and ornaments, gave them back to the old lady and, without a word, went to her room. Jinzhi and Jinzhan dragged their mother out to the balcony and begged her to tell them what had happened.
"I've never seen anything like you girls," Fourth Mistress snapped. "You're not the ones whose match is being made-and here you are all hot and bothered!"
Third. Mistress followed them onto the balcony. "Don't say things she might take the wrong way," she said softly.
Fourth Mistress turned to face Liusu's room and shouted, "I may be pointing at the mulberry but I'm cursing the locust tree. And why shouldn't I curse her? It's not as lf she hadn't seen a man for a thousand years! So why does she act crazy, all worked up and woozy the minute she catches a whiff of one?"
Jinzhi and Jinzhan were bewildered by their mother's out­burst. Third Sister managed to calm her down, then told the girls, "First we went to see a movie."
"See a movie?" Jinzhi was quite surprised.
"Yes—quite quite strange, isn't it?" Third Mistress said. "The whole point of the meeting was for them to see each other, but there in the dark you can't see anything. Later, Mrs. Xu said this was all Mr. Fan's idea-that it was a ploy of his. He wanted her to sit around for a couple hours, till the sweat made her makeup run and he could get a better look. That's what Mrs. Xu thinks. I think Mr. Fan never was sincere about this. He wanted to see a movie because he didn't want to talk with us. Didn't he try to slip away as soon as the movie ended?"
Fourth Mistress couldn't hold back. "What do you mean? Everything was going very well. If it hadn't been for that troublemaker we took with us, we'd be halfway there by now!"
"Then what? Then what?" Jinzhi and Jinzhan frantically im­plored their aunt.
"Well, then Mrs. Xu stopped Mr. Fan and said we should all go and get something to eat. Mr. Fan said it would be his treat."
Fourth Mistress clapped her hands together. "If we were go­ing to get a bite to eat, then that's what we should have done. It's obvious that Seventh Sister doesn't know how to dance, so why'd we go to a dance hall and then just sit around? You won't hear me saying it, but, really, this was Third. Master's fault. He goes out. He knows the town. He should have said something when Mr. Fan told tbe cabdriver to go to a dance hall."
"So many restaurants in Shanghai," Third Mistress rose in defense. "How could be know which ones have dancing, and which ones don't? He hasn't got the leisure to go around find­ing out things like that—the way Fourth Master does!"
Jinzhi and Jinzhan still wanted to hear the rest of the story, but Third Mistress had been challenged by Fourth Mistress so many times that now she lost interest. "So we went to get a bite to eat, and then we came home."
"What kind of person is this Mr. Fan?" Jinzhan asked. "How should I know?" said Third. Mistress. "I don't think we got three whole sentences out of him." She thought for a moment. "He dances pretty well, though."
Jinzhi let out a small gasp. "Who did he dance with?"
Fourth Mistress cut in. "Who else? Your Sixth Aunt of course! People who are properly brought up, people like us, aren't taught to dance. But your Sixth Aunt learned it all from that no-good husband of hers. Utterly shameless! Someone asks you to dance, can't you say you don't know how, and let it go at that? There's no shame in not knowing how to dance. Look at your Third Aunt—look at me—we're all from good families, we've been around long enough to see something of the world. We don't dance!"
Third Mistress sighed. "One dance, well, you could say it was just to be polite. But two, three dances!"
Jinzhi and Jinzhan were flabbergasted.
Fourth Mistress turned again toward a certain doorway and vented her ire. "You've got a heart smeared with pig fat! If you think that by ruining your sister's chances you are going to get lucky, you'd better forget it! He's turned down so many ladies, do you think he'd want a soiled flower like you?"
Liusu and Baolu shared a room, and Baolu had already gone to bed. Liusu crouched down in the dark and lit a stick of mosquito-repellant incense. She'd heard everything that had been said out on the balcony, but this time she was perfectly calm. She struck the match and watched it burn, the little three-cornered pennant of flaming red flickering in its own draft, coming closer and closer toward her fingers. With a puff of her lips, she blew it out, leaving only the glowing red flag­pole. The pole twisted and shrank into a curly gray fiendish shape. She tossed the dead match into the incense pan.
She hadn't planned the evening's events, but in any case she'd shown them a thing or two. So they thought she was fin­ished, that her life was already over? The game was just begin­ning! She smiled. Baolu must be cursing her silently, far more fiercely even than Fourth Mistress. But she knew that as much as Baolu hated her, the younger woman's heart was also full of respect and admiration. No matter how amazing a woman is, she won't be respected by her own sex unless she's loved by a member of the opposite one. Women are petty this way.
Was it really true that Fan Liuyuan liked her? Not certain in the least. All those things he'd said-she didn't believe a word of it. She could tell that he was used to lying to women, she'd have to be very careful. Family, family everywhere, and no one to turn to—she was on her own. Her moon-white silk gauze cheongsam hung from the bed frame. Twisting around, she sat on the floor and hid her face in the long skirt. Puff after steady puff, the green smoke of the mosquito-repellent incense floated up, seeping into her brain. Her eyes gleamed with tears.
A few days later, Mrs. Xu returned to the Bai residence. Fourth Mistress had already predicted: "After the scene Sixth Sister made, Seventh Sister's chances are ruined. How could Mrs. Xu fail to be angry? And if Mrs. Xu was angry with Sixth Sister, would she still be willing to help her by making useful introductions? This was a case of 'trying to steal a chicken with a handful of grain, and losing both bird and bait.'"
And it was true: Mrs. Xu was not as enthusiastic as she had been. She started out by beating around the bush, explaining why she hadn't come by in a while. Her husband had some business to take care of in Hong Kong, and, if all went well, they would be going there, renting a house, and staying for about a year. That was why she'd been so busy the last few days, packing up and getting ready to go. As for the Baolu p10ject, Mr. Fan had already left Shanghai, so they'd have to let it rest for the time being. And Mrs. Xu had just found out that Mr. Jiang, Liusu's potential match, had another woman in his life. Trying to drive a wedge between them would be no easy matter. Anyway, this kind of person really wasn't reliable; it might be better to give it up. When Third and Fourth Mistress heard this, they exchanged glances and smirked.