After considerable thought, he could not repress himself from bursting out laughing. Then asking a servant to fetch him a pencil, he wrote a couple of words on the palm of his hand. This done, he went on to inquire of Hsüeh. P'an: "Did you see correctly that it read Keng Huang?"
"How could I not have seen correctly?" ejaculated Hsüeh P'an.
Pao-yü thereupon unclenched his hand and allowed him to peruse, what was written in it. "Were they possibly these two characters?" he remarked. "These are, in point of fact, not very dissimilar from what Keng Huang look like?"
On scrutinising them, the company noticed the two words T'ang Yin, and they all laughed. "They must, we fancy, have been these two characters!" they cried. "Your eyes, Sir, may, there's no saying, have suddenly grown dim!"
Hsüeh P'an felt utterly abashed. "Who could have said," he smiled, "whether they were T'ang Yin or Kuo Yin, (candied silver or fruit silver)."
As he cracked this joke, however, a young page came and announced that
Mr. Feng had arrived. Pao-yü concluded that the new comer must be Feng
Tzu-ying, the son of Feng T'ang, general with the prefix of Shen Wu."
"Ask him in at once," Hsüeh P'an and his companions shouted with one voice.
But barely were these words out of their mouths, than they realised that Feng Tzu-ying had already stepped in, talking and laughing as he approached.
The company speedily rose from table and offered him a seat.
"That's right!" smiled Feng Tzu-ying. "You don't go out of doors, but remain at home and go in for high fun!"