After a year at the Academy the brothers began to feel homesick and decided to pay a return visit, lest their young wives become depressed and ill from pining for them. They asked the dean for a few months' leave, and the request was granted.
After saying goodbye to Jade Scent, they traveled back with Cloud's husband. Once home, needless to say, each was treated to a welcome-home party by his wife, and then asked how many courtesans and catamites he had been with and how he had enjoyed himself as compared with his experience at home. Each husband, of course, told of his liaison with Jade Scent and described her three superlative skills in glowing terms, inevitably saying more than he should have said.
Next morning, when the wives arose, they told one another what they had learned, and all of their stories tallied.
"We don't believe such a prodigy exists," said Lucky Pearl and Lucky Jade, "although if she does exist, she will render us passé. But we think that the whole story has been cooked up by our husbands to make us look like the only truly useless women in the world. The idea is to needle us into putting more effort into our lovemaking."
"Ah, but they won't be able to deceive the man we've been living with," said Cloud. "He has lots of experience, and if such a whore exists, he's bound to know of her. Let's ask him when next he comes over."
"Good idea," said the others.
During the Qingming festival their husbands went off to visit the family graves and were not expected back until the following day. The women promptly sent a maid to invite Vesperus over. After exchanging greetings, they asked about the woman.
"There are all kinds of things in the world," he said. "Perhaps there is such a prodigy of a prostitute somewhere. Anyway, if she's in the capital, I'll meet up with her one day. Just give me one night with her; and only if she's a match for me will she qualify as a prodigy. Those fellows wouldn't know a good woman if they saw one!"
After chatting for a while, they spent the night together. As Vesperus left the next day, he was still puzzled. It must be true, if all three husbands tell the same story, he thought, and since we have such a magician as that among us, why shouldn't I go and see her? I've been to bed with any number of beautiful women in my time, but I've never come across one who could do the work herself-it's a distinct gap in my experience. Moreover, my blood and semen have been sadly depleted by these four, and I need to learn some tactics for building them up again. If that whore knows all these magical arts, it'll take me just one night with her to learn how to ingest the essence, after which I'll be able to enjoy myself for the rest of my life. If it's such a boon, why not try it?
He decided to return home to see his wife and then travel on to the capital to visit the famous courtesan.
His journey itself was of no importance, but it led to certain results:
The fury in his heart could not have been vented by toppling Mount Tai,
The shame on his face could not have been cleansed by scooping up the West River.
If you wish to learn the details, you will find them in the next chapter.
CRITIQUE
Vesperus's lechery and wickedness have now reached their climax. If his wife had been made to take a lover without becoming a prostitute, it would not have gladdened our hearts, any more than if she had become a prostitute without entertaining the three women's husbands. If, by the end of a lewd book, there is no character or event but has met with retribution, all those readers who have committed any sins of the flesh will find themselves bathed in a cold sweat. That is just the kind of lewd book we should read more of!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Poem:
Before setting off, Vesperus paid a farewell call on the Knave and asked him to watch over the family during his absence.
"Looking after someone's family is not something to be taken on lightly," said the Knave. "Children are easy enough. It's wives that are the problem. I'm a rough and ready sort of fellow, and all I can see to are the daily necessities; I can't stand guard over your women's quarters for you. If there's anything your wife needs in the line of food, firewood, or money, she has only to ask for it; but I can't give much of a guarantee about other matters. You'll have to go home and instruct her yourself."
"The daily necessities are my only concern," said Vesperus. "I've already spoken to her about the other matters. Anyway she's an experienced woman, quite different from when she was first married. A potential seducer with any practical qualifications would surely be no better endowed than Honest Quan, and she found him inadequate and married me instead. I doubt that there's another man like me anywhere, so there's really no cause for worry."
"You're right. Just so long as you can trust her. In that case I don't mind taking it on."
Vesperus took his leave, then wrote four love poems and sent them secretly to Flora and her nieces as a farewell message. Finally, after several nights of love with Fragrance, he set off.
Arriving in his hometown after days of travel, he made his way to Iron Door's house, where he knocked for a long time without response. He was rather pleased. So the household really is strictly run, he thought. I doubt that any outsider has been in; it wouldn't have mattered if I'd stayed away months longer.
After knocking until dark, he finally glimpsed someone peeping at him through the crack in the door. Vesperus realized it must be the Master and addressed him: "Father-in-law, open up. It's your son-in-law."
The Master hastily opened the door and let him in. Vesperus went through into the hall, greeted him formally, and then sat down and began asking after the family, first about his father-in-law's health and then about his wife's.
The Master heaved a sigh. "I keep fairly well myself, with no ailments to speak of, but my daughter suffered a terrible misfortune. After you left, she came down with an illness that prevented her from either sleeping or eating. Finally she fell into a depression, and in less than a year she passed away." He began to sob bitterly.
"How could that happen!" exclaimed Vesperus, as he began to beat his chest, stamp his feet, and accompany the Master in his sobbing. "Where is her coffin? Has she been buried yet?" he asked, after sobbing awhile.
"It has been kept in the cloister. I wanted you to see it before the burial."
Vesperus had the cloister opened and, prostrating himself on the coffin, wept again before eventually composing himself.
Where do you suppose the coffin came from? When the Master found out that his daughter had run off with a lover, he could not bear to tell anyone, partly because he was afraid of the neighbors' ridicule, and partly because he feared the day his son-in-law came looking for her. His solution was to buy a coffin, seal it up, and give out that his daughter had died of an illness and that he was keeping her coffin at home for the time being. In this way he could stop the news getting out and also deter his son-in-law from trying to find her.
Since his father-in-law was normally the soul of honesty, Vesperus readily accepted the explanation. Moreover, his own departure had come right in the middle of his wife's sexual awakening, and it seemed entirely plausible that, with her torrid sexual desires suddenly denied an outlet, the resulting depression might have brought on an illness. Thus his suspicions were not in the least aroused. In fact quite the contrary; in a mood of bitter self-reproach, he called in priests to hold services for three days and nights to commend her soul to immediate rebirth, lest she resent his lechery from her place in Hell and become so jealous as to emulate the dead wife who snatched Wang Kui from the living. [89]