Chapter 100: Fire Trees And Silver Flowers
Girls’ School, also called Spring Fragrance Making Trouble at School, tells the story of the maid Spring Fragrance teasing the old pedant in the school hall.
Strolling in the Garden and Startled by a Dream were originally the most gorgeous and joyful two acts in Peony Pavilion, but they also contain many foreshadowings of decay.
Only the voice from the stage sang.
“So it turns out myriad purples and brilliant reds bloom everywhere, all this handed over to broken wells and crumbling walls.”
“Morning they fly and evening they roll up, cloud brocades and emerald awnings; rain silk and wind fragments, misty waves and painted boats—the embroidered screen beauty too cheaply regards this fine spring light!”
In the dream, in front of the peony fence, Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei achieve the joy of cloud and rain.
After the utmost bliss, the mother’s call from the stage startles the beautiful dream awake.
“Child, child, how did you fall asleep here?”
Abruptly turning, the illusory dream shatters, everything disperses.
Lin Jiren inexplicably breaks out in a cold sweat.
He looks to his left and right, the figure of his eldest son is gone, and he hurriedly asks those around: “Where is the eldest young master?”
The servant replies: “The eldest young master left the table.”
“Find him!” Lin Jiren only feels a heaviness in his chest, vaguely sensing something ominous, and low-voiced rebukes the servant.
At this moment, his eldest son’s voice comes from beside him. “Father is looking for me?”
Lin Jiren turns and sees his eldest son standing by his side.
Lin Jiren sizes him up and says: “Where did you go?”
“Your son just went to relieve himself.”
Relieving himself is a polite way of saying using the toilet; Lin Jiren asks no more and gestures for his son to sit.
By the light from the stage, Lin Jiren sees a string of dense sweat beads on his eldest son’s forehead.
It is already late autumn now; would relieving himself produce so much sweat?
With guests at his side, Lin Jiren can only suppress the doubts in his heart.
After the three acts are performed, it is time for the evening banquet.
The evening banquet is arranged as a simple scattered seating; though without big fish and meat, it excels in being light and elegant.
The evening banquet continues until the beginning of the hour of Dog, after which guests leave one after another, and servants distribute return gifts.
Lin Jiren and his son go to the main gate to see them off, and at the same time set off firecrackers; two strings of one thousand eight hundred shots of ground-blooming red flowers explode together outside Lin Mansion, for a moment like flowering trees and silver flowers, the sound carrying ten li.
……
At the beginning of the hour of Dog, the guards of Lin Mansion change shifts, and the back wall is temporarily unmanned.
Lin Qian, who had long been lying in ambush outside the water gate of Lin Mansion, low-voiced commands: “Go!”
Thereupon, Lin Qian leads more than ten others to approach the water gate.
At this time, the guard in the watchtower is turning back to look toward the firecrackers at the front gate.
The crew members place a huge wooden board over the waterway, then take out the pre-prepared black cotton cloth, soak it in water, and layer it on top to form a sealed tent.
This set of actions, the crew members have practiced no less than a hundred times; at this moment their movements flow like clouds and water, and in mere moments the water gate is completely covered.
Lin Qian and Bai Langzai then step onto the wooden board and go to the front of the water gate.
Only to see that the water gate is about half a person’s height, three chi wide, made into a round arch shape; inside the gate, more than ten finger-thick iron bars are crisscrossed, forming an iron grating.
Bai Langzai takes out custom pottery jars from the shoulder bag, assembles them in pairs, and places them on the grating.
The upper and lower holes of the pottery jars perfectly allow the iron bars to pass through them, while the latches between the two pieces hold them together, fixing them to the iron bars.
Cylindrical pottery jars are arranged in a circle around the arch; Lin Qian carefully adjusts the orientation of each pottery jar, pointing the side hole toward himself.
Afterward, Lin Qian takes down the gourd of carbon heat agent from his waist, inserts the custom crooked-neck funnel into the side hole, and pours the carbon heat agent inside.
After one gourd is emptied, Lin Qian takes another gourd from his waist and continues pouring until each pottery jar is filled halfway.
During this time, the other ship workers keep surveilling the movements on the courtyard wall.
Fortunately, the firecrackers in front of the main gate are extremely loud, covering the sounds of their actions and firmly drawing the guards’ attention there.
To show extravagance, Lin Mansion has stockpiled a great many firecrackers; the one thousand eight hundred shots of ground-blooming red flowers are not yet fully burned out when two more strings are lit and hung up.
There are also rocket flowers occasionally bursting in the sky, dazzling and mesmerizing.
Lin Qian’s original plan was to act on a rainy night, using the sound of heavy rain to cover the noise, but unexpectedly encountering Lin Mansion’s birthday celebration, he temporarily adjusted the plan.
In the backyard kennel, the pack of dogs seems to sense something and begins barking.
A crew member brings meat buns and throws them over the wall toward the kennel; after throwing about a dozen buns, the barking gradually quiets.
In front of the water gate, Lin Qian’s hands are steady, and after filling the carbon heat agent, he takes a smaller gourd from his waist.
Inside is black powder, the igniter for the carbon heat agent’s reaction.
Controlling the igniter is extremely precise; too little and it won’t ignite, too much and the black powder explodes instantly, shattering the pottery jar.
Even though Lin Qian has experimented dozens of times and determined the optimal ratio, he can’t help feeling nervous inside at this moment.
“Pa!”
In the night sky, a huge rocket flower explodes, trailing dazzling light, for a moment meteors streaking across the sky.
After an instant of extreme brilliance, the sky returns to silence.
Outside the mansion gate, the firecracker sounds have stopped.
The relieving guards come back to their senses with lingering excitement and walk toward the courtyard wall.
“Helmsman.”
A crew member whispers a reminder.
Lin Qian remains unmoved, continuing to load the powder.
“Helmsman, we should go.” The crew member says urgently.
Lin Qian does not respond; at this point the powder loading is complete, and he takes out fuses from his bosom, inserting them one by one into the side holes of the pottery jars.
Beside him, Bai Langzai takes out thin rope and ties down the pottery jars fitted with fuses.
“Pa pa pa…”
At this moment, another burst of firecracker sounds comes from the main gate; presumably the previous two strings have burned out, and new ones are just lit.
The guards look toward the main gate with great interest; though they can’t see the sky filled with flying red debris, they can still glimpse the flashing lights from afar.
Finally, the last fuse is inserted; Lin Qian wipes the sweat from his forehead and reaches out to Bai Langzai.
The two are already very tacit; Bai Langzai knows Lin Qian wants the fire cord, but he doesn’t hand it over and says lowly: “Let me do it.”
Lin Qian glances at him; Bai Langzai’s expression is resolute, and the fire cord bound to his right hand glows dark red.
“This is dangerous; let me do it.” Bai Langzai says again.
Lin Qian nods: “Good, do you know how?”
Bai Langzai slowly nods; during the few days in Huangyan, Lin Qian tested the pottery jar’s fire resistance several times, and Bai Langzai watched from the side, already understanding how to use the pottery jar.
Lin Qian says no more, steps down from the wooden board, and retreats to a dark spot nearby.
Only to see Bai Langzai blow on the fire cord a few times, making it glow even redder.
Bai Langzai brings the fire cord close to the fuses one by one.
“Sizzle—”
“Sizzle—”
The sound of the fuses is covered by the firecrackers.
After igniting all the fuses, Bai Langzai immediately moves the wooden board underfoot away, exits the tent, and lowers the black cloth at the tent entrance.
The instant he comes out, white blazing flames erupt from the side mouths of the pottery jars, shooting straight out like blowtorches, accompanied by bursts of noise.
The water-soaked black cloth blocks most of the sound and light, but some still leaks outward.
Fortunately, the ground-blooming red flowers continue unabated in front of the main gate, the air already filled with smoke smell, and the noise covered by the ground-blooming red flowers.
Lin Qian lies on the ground, unconsciously clutching a handful of mud in his palm.
The most dangerous part of this method is the pottery jars cracking from the heat; despite multiple experiments beforehand to ensure the pottery jars’ strength, it still causes worry.
At his side, there are also five or six bamboo ladders; if the carbon heat agent fails, they will climb the wall by force.
Of course, forcing the wall climb will certainly be detected by the guards in the watchtowers on both sides; Lin Qian’s men have drilled it many times, and even in a strong assault, they have confidence to take Lin Mansion.
Moments later, through the soaked black cotton cloth, the white light inside the tent dims, and orange-red firelight emerges from the mouths of the pottery jars—this is the sign that the black powder has burned out and the red lead begins its reduction reaction.
The brilliance of this method is shown here: the sound of the red lead reduction reaction is extremely small, and the generated carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless, easily going undetected.
With little wind tonight, the guards on the back wall will be dazed by the carbon monoxide; even if they don’t faint on the spot, they will be groggy and less likely to notice anything unusual.
Time passes second by second.
A few minutes later, the orange-red firelight weakens again, and the flames from the side mouths shorten inward.
After another moment, the firelight has completely dimmed.
