The Master replied: “All night long I saw Cheung See in a dream and talked with her. How can I be well?”
Chin See asked him to tell her more fully, but he made no reply and simply turned as if to sleep again.
In a state of great distress, Chin See told a palace-maid to wait on the Princesses and say that the Master was ailing and to please come at once.
When the message was given, Blossom remarked: “One who ate and drank so freely yesterday could hardly be seriously ill to-day. It is only a trick on his part to get us to go to see him.”
But Chin See came herself in great anxiety: “The Master is dazed seemingly and unconscious, and does not know anyone, but talks in a wandering way. Would it not be well to inform his Majesty and let the chief physician of the Court be sent for?”
The Dowager overheard them at this point, called the Princesses, and reprimanded them, saying: “You have gone too far in your jesting, you naughty girls. You hear that he is very unwell and yet have not even gone to see him. What kind of treatment is that? Go at once and make inquiry, and if he is very ill, get the most experienced and skilful Court physician called and see that he is cared for.”
Blossom now finding that there was no help for it, went with Orchid to the room where the Master slept and waited for a little at the threshold of the door. She made Orchid and Chin See go in first.
The Master looked at Orchid, waved his two hands, and gazed into space as though he did not know her. Then he whispered: “My life is going and I want to take a long farewell of Blossom. Where is Blossom that she does not come?”
Orchid replied: “Why does the Master say such things?”
He answered: “Last night, in a vision, Cheung See came to me and said, 'Master, why have you broken your vow?' and then in great anger she upbraided me and gave me a handful of pearls. I took and swallowed them. Assuredly this was a dreadful omen, for when I shut my eyes Cheung See seems to hold my body down, and when I open them she stands before me. Life is but a moment at best, and that is my reason for desiring to see Blossom.”
Before he had finished speaking an apparent faintness came over him, and he turned his face to the wall and talked at random.
When Orchid saw this she was alarmed and came out and said to Blossom: “I am afraid that the Master's illness is due to worry and anxiety. Without you there is no hope of his recovery.” And she told just how he seemed.
Blossom, half inclined to believe, and half inclined to doubt, hesitated to go in, but Orchid took her by the hand and they went in together. They found Yang talking incoherently in a conversation that he seemed to be having with Cheung See.
Then Orchid in a loud voice said: “Master, Master, Blossom has come; please look at her.”
He raised his head for an instant, waved his hand about several times as though he wished to get up, then Chin See took hold and helped him. He sat on the side of the couch and speaking to the two Princesses said: “I, So-yoo, have abused the grace of God and have been married to you two Princesses. I have sworn my vow that for all time to come I will live and grow old with you, but there is one whose purpose it is to arrest and bear me away, so I cannot long remain.”
Blossom said in reply: “Master, you are a gentleman of intelligence and reason. Why do you talk such nonsense? Even though Cheung See's frail soul and dead spirit do exist, this inner palace is so closely guarded by a hundred angels, who serve as its protecting force, that she could never enter here.”
The Master replied: “Cheung See was just now at my side; how can you say that she could not enter?”
Then Orchid answered: “The ancients saw in the wine glass the shadow of a bow, and fell ill of fear. I am sure that the Master's illness is because he has mistaken the archer's bow for a serpent.”
But the Master made no reply, simply waving his hands. Blossom, seeing that the matter grew gradually worse and worse, did not longer dare to keep up the deception. She went forward, knelt down, and said: “Master, do you want to see only the dead Cheung See and not the living?”
Yang, pretending that he did not understand, replied: “What do you mean? Justice Cheung had one daughter only, and she has been dead for a long time. Since the dead Cheung See visited me, what living Cheung See can there be beside her? If she is not dead, why she is alive? If she is not alive, why she is dead? Anybody knows that. To say sometimes of anyone, 'Why they are dead?' and again sometimes 'Why they are alive?' is nonsense. One must inquire whether the dead person is really Cheung See, or whether the living person is really Cheung See. If it is true that she is really alive then it is false that she is dead; and if it is true that she is really dead then it is false to say that she is alive. I cannot understand what your Highness says.”
Orchid then broke in: “Her Majesty the Dowager adopted Cheung See as her daughter and made her Princess Blossom, and put her and me together in the Master's service. Princess Blossom is indeed the same Cheung See who listened when you played the harp. If not so, why should she be in every look and feature the exact image of Cheung See?”
The Master made no reply but gave a little moan and then suddenly raised his head and said: “When I lived at Cheung See's home, Cheung See's maid Cloudlet waited upon me. I have something that I want to ask of Croudlet. Where is she now? I want to see her.”
Orchid said: “Cloudlet just now came into the palace to see Blossom, and learning that the Master was unwell, she is anxiously waiting outside and wants to make her salutations.”
The door opened and Cloudlet entered. She went up to the Master and said: “Are you better, my lord? I certainly hope so.”
Yang replied: “Let Cloudlet stay by me alone, and let all the others go out.” And so the Princesses and Chin See withdrew and stood at the head of the open porch.
Then the Master arose, washed, arranged his dress and told Cloudlet to call the other three.
Then Cloudlet, bottling up her smiles, came out and said to the two Princesses and to Chin See: “The Master wants to see you,” and so the four went in.
Yang now wore a ceremonial robe and special hat, and held in his hand a white stone chatelaine. His face was fresh as the spring breezes, and his mind as clear as the autumn stream. Not a vestige was there of anything that would mark him as ill. Blossom suddenly realised that she had been fooled, laughed and bowed low, making no further inquiries as to his health.
Orchid asked: “How is your lordship feeling now?”
The Master, with a serious countenance, said: “Truly we have fallen on peculiar days when the women of a household band together to play practical jokes upon the husband. I am a man of high rank, of the dignity of a first minister, and I have sought high and low for some way by which to correct this disorder in my family but have not succeeded. In my anxiety I fell ill, but I am quite recovered now, so do not be anxious, please.”
Orchid and Chin See laughed with all their might but made no reply, and then Cheung See said:
“This was not our doing, please. If the Master would find full recovery from his sickness let him look up to the Empress Mother and tell her.”
Yang could no longer restrain his pent-up feelings, but broke out laughing and said: “I had expected to meet you only in the next world and had so planned, but to-day you were in my dream. Is it not truly a beautiful dream?”
Cheung See said: “It is all due to her Gracious Majesty's kindness to me her child, and to the unbounded favour of his Majesty the Emperor, and the love and tenderness of Princess Orchid. It is written on my bones and engraved deep in my heart. Never can my life be able to speak all my remembered gratitude.” Then she told him everything that had come to pass, and he thanked her, saying: “The equal of your dear-heartedness has never been recorded since time immemorial. I have no way to make any return for this highest favour. My sincerest regards and tenderest love shall all be yours while we live our happy life together.”