Six Records of a Floating Life (Chapter one: Wedded Bliss 04)

 

    That day, we were kept busy entaining guests and towards evening, music was played.

    After midnight, on the morning of twenty-fourth, I, as the bride's brother, sent my sister away and came back towards three o'clock. The room was then pervaded with quietness, bathed in the silent glow of the candle-lights. I went in and saw Yun's bride's companion was taking a nap down in front of our bed on the floor, while Yun had taken off her bridal costume, but had not yet gone to bed. She was bending her beautiful white neck before the bright candles, quite absorded reading a book. I patted her on the shoulder and said, "Sister, why are you working so hard? You must be quite tired with the full days we've had." Quickly Yun turned her head and stood up saying, "I was going to bed when I opened the book-case and saw this book and have not been able to leave it since. Now my sleepiness is all gone. I have heard of the name of Western Chamber for a long time, but today I see it for the first time. It is really the work of a genius, only I feel that its style is a little bit too biting." "Only geniuses can write a biting style." I smiled and said.

    The bride's companion asked us to go to bed, but we told her to shut the door and retire first. I began to sit down by Yun's side and we joked together like old friends after a long period of separation. I touched her breast in fun and felt that her heart was palpitating too. "Why is Sister's heart palitating like that?" I bent down and whispered in her ear. Yun looked back at me with a smile and our souls were carried away in a mist of passion. Then we went to bed, when all too soon the dawn came.

    As a bride, Yun was very quiet at first. She was never sullen or displeased, and when people spoke to her, she merely smiled. She was respectfully towards her superiors and kindly towards those under her. Whatever she did was done well, and it was difficult to find fault with her. When she saw the grey dawn shining in through the window, she would get up and dress herself as if she had been commanded to do so. "Why?" I asked, "You don't have to be afraid of gossip, like the days when you gave me that warm congee." "I was made a laughing-stock on account of that bowl of congee," she replied, "but now I am not afraid of people's talk; I only fear that our parents might think their daughter-in-law lazy." Although I wanted her to lie in bed longer, I could not help admiring her virtue, and so got up myself, too, at the same time with her. And so every day we rubbed shoulders together and clung to each other like an object and its shadow, and the love between us was something that surpassed the language of words.

    So the time passed happily and the honeymoon was too soon over. At this time, my father Chiafu was in the service of the  Kueich'i district government, and he sent a special messenger to bring me there, for, it should be noted that, during this time, I was under the tutorship of Chao Shengtsai of Wulin (Hangchow). Chao was a very kindly teacher and today the fact that I can write at all is due entirely to his credit.