Chapter 33

Qi Qian'er had pressed the question.

And Chen Dasheng answered, open and forthright: "I'll spit it back up for them!"

Worst come to worst, I won't eat yours, I'll give it back. That satisfies you, doesn't it? Surely you wouldn't want it once it's turned to muck? Wouldn't you mind the stink?

That's right. This was what the man was thinking.

This was his sense of how the world worked. His granny was so, his mother was so, every elder of his old village was so.

And later, in the army, most of the folk he knew went about things the same way.

For an instant Qi Qian'er was stunned. Of course! Hadn't he always been this kind of man?

And how old was he now, twenty. The hard knocks he'd met were dealt to him head-on by others. No one troubled to scheme against so lowly a creature, to lay a crooked trap for him.

The great blow of his life hadn't come yet. So he wouldn't grow.

But he had to grow!

The room was quiet. Only the sheep in the yard, come to a strange place, let out an uneasy bleat now and then.

The window-lattice stood open. The hardwood kang-table lay collapsed. And the old lady, meek for once, said nothing, silently tidying the pastries.

But inside she was weeping. Grandson, she thought, granny's done you wrong this time! I thought she was a good one. Our house has been cheated. Who'd have thought she was like this? A living she-devil come again into the world...

At that thought the old lady looked at her pipe-bowl with lingering dread. And, for no clear reason, she talked herself round: "Lucky I'm clever. Before, I only ever thought of hitting her, and being kind-hearted I never laid a hand on her."

Thinking it through in a cold sweat, she snatched up the pipe and tucked it under her backside.

Qi Qian'er said nothing, only glared at Chen Dasheng.

Chen Dasheng understood at once that his wife was displeased. But he hadn't the least idea where he'd gone wrong.

He tugged at the corner of his mouth to smile at her, and got glared back into place.

His wife had said a great deal, and he'd listened in earnest. Why the Emperor was a parent, that he grasped. Apart from your father and mother, who gives you food and drink for nothing? No one.

But think as he might, he couldn't get it through his head. Just because he kept the great gate for the Emperor, things couldn't be as they'd always been? A sheep, neighbors close and friendly, you eat it if you eat it. Tomorrow, if something comes up and her house wants a hand, you help as the case may be.

As for ten-tael shoes, how could that be! And a hundred-tael robe to wear? Who'd be fool enough to give a body a hundred-tael robe?

Chang Lianfang gave things and never named a price. And Chen Dasheng was no judge of worth at all.

Qi Qian'er knew it was hopeless. The whole grand array of reasoning she'd made ready had been set out in the wrong place. Playing the lute to an ox.

From the moment Scabby led another man's sheep grinning into the yard, Qi Qian'er had seen in his eyes the very thing that was in the old lady's. He'd got the better of a bargain, and he was delighted.

This was no longer the frontier of her last life, where loyalty, faith, and a life laid down earned a man praise.

The place they were going was called the palace! In the imperial house there are no small matters. Let anything go wrong, and one man's head can't carry the guilt. Wiping out a whole clan, three kindreds, nine kindreds. That is how that place cows all under heaven.

Countless pictures rose in Qi Qian'er's head at once. An elder statesman of three reigns, old and failing, unsteady on his feet, takes a fall. The court tablet drops from the old lord's hand. And Recorder Chen, Gate Marquis, happening by, picks it up as a matter of course and tucks it into his robe. Nice jade slip. Dropped on the ground, so it's mine...

A pretty palace maid, meaning to snare the Emperor, drops her lovingly embroidered scent-pouch on the ground. Recorder Chen, Gate Marquis, passing by, picks it up and tucks it away. Oh, here's a thing? Mm! Dropped on the ground, so it's mine now!

An assassin has just struck at the Emperor and flung the knife into the palace grass. Recorder Chen passes, sees no one about. Oho, nice knife, picks it up, and, bold as brass, sticks it at his waist and struts about at the palace gate for all the officials to see.

A noble-born son of some old great house scorns the Emperor's fondness for old blades. Passing the south gate, he unhooks the jade pendant at his waist and tosses it to the Gate Marquis: a reward for you.

Recorder Lord Chen, Gate Marquis, would never turn down such a bargain. He'd gladly catch these bounties and tuck them into his robe, and reckon the giver a fine, good man.

But he wouldn't understand. The moment he takes these rewards, in these people's eyes he's no longer a fellow official serving in the same hall. He's only a Tan house's bought slave, a house-servant to be ordered about and beaten to death at whim.

That he'd become a servant himself was no great matter. But her An'er? In the last life, with no father or mother to hold up his dignity, he was taken for a servant's son and handed off at whim to some noble young master, to be ridden like a horse and whipped like a beast. Her An'er, so clever, who'd remember any book at a single reading. Why must he come into her belly, and be her child?

At the thought her heart gave a stab, and Qi Qian'er, clutching her chest, spat out a mouthful of blood.

At her ear the old lady cried out in alarm: "What, what's this now? Merciful heaven above."

Everyone in the room panicked. Chen Dasheng, badly frightened, put out a hand to catch Qi Qian'er. And Qi Qian'er, with all her strength, shoved him one-handed back against the wall, plastered him flat like a griddle-cake, and let him slide slowly down.

Yu Qingguan and the rest bared their teeth, leaning back with a hiss of cold breath. Mama mia, this is a lady Tan the Second!

The griddle-cake reached the floor, took the shape of a man again, and made to come forward.

"Don't come near me!!" Qi Qian'er was beside herself. She looked up and glared at Chen Dasheng, then wiped the blood at her mouth carelessly and said: "I'm all right."

She got off the kang, put on her shoes, walked to the west room, barred the door, crouched on the floor, and cried without a sound.

Since coming back, she'd never been so despairing.

She'd thought up so many arguments, so much reasoning. She'd have pried their heads open and stuffed the sense in if she could.

No use! What do you do when they can't understand?

People like Chen Dasheng had eaten great bitterness, suffered great wrongs, endured great hunger, seen the hell of men eating men. And so, even in a peaceful age to come, their very souls had taken a grave illness.

Never again would they eat their own fresh grain. They'd store it, and store it, until it was near spoiling before they'd touch it.

Never again would they eat a whole fruit. Half of it had to rot before they'd dare bite. They'd forever eat what was going bad, forever laying by for next month, laying by even for the back half of their lives.

Each of them was like a field-mouse. Always hunting for some safety they couldn't even name. They could take any hardship, and they lived on instinct.

To live was to hide things away, hide goods, hide money and grain. And so a lifetime passed, on and on, till death. Even stretching out their legs at the last with a sigh of relief, they were glad: from now on, at least, no more fear of hunger and hardship.

There was no medicine for this sickness. No curing it.

Let this lot go out and come back with nothing, and they'd feel they couldn't hold up their heads as men.

The old lady was such a one. Meng Wanquan was such a one. Chen Dasheng was such a one. The other six were such ones. Even Madam Qiao was such a one. By this hard-won knowledge they'd lived through great calamity, so they held it sacred all their lives, and passed it to their children and grandchildren even in death.

But the place they were going now, what place was that?

The very heart of all Liang. The imperial city. Where the ministers gathered and every faction crowded, the arena where the bureaucrats fought.

Every one of these men looked so presentable now, so round and full. But one touch, and they were an eggshell, to be smashed to powder!

And her An'er, couldn't even make it as a loyal official's son? So bitter a thing. Qi Qian'er was worried sick, tears falling and falling, pattering down like a little stream.

Unable to call her granddaughter-in-law out, the old lady looked helplessly this way and that, her lips trembling: "What kind of temper is this? Your eldest aunt, your second aunt, your own mother! Go ask the whole village, whose house has a granny like this? Shall I call her granny? She's my ancestress! Aiya, how, how can she have so fierce a temper? The day your mother and the rest were lost, I didn't cough up blood..."

The old lady, in truth, was aching with worry. She just hadn't noticed it herself.

Chen Dasheng was flustered too. He knew he must be in the wrong. Then, how about sending Madam Tao back the two sheep, and buying from someone else?

In the end it was Meng Wanquan who said: "You've surely done something amiss somewhere. How about we ask Doctor Cheng to come by?"

Doctor Cheng and this little wife were the same sort of pettifogging pair. Forever expounding reasonings no one could follow, one string of them after another without end, till a body was thoroughly vexed.

At that the old lady's eyes lit up: "Yes! Yes! Fetch Doctor Cheng, quick! Wanquan, go get someone, quick!" That wretched girl, coughing up a whole mouthful of blood, and the child not even carried yet. She mustn't fall ill.

So Meng Wanquan ran out, and a good while later came dragging in Doctor Cheng: soft in the legs, blue about the lips, a look of deliverance on his face.

This time Doctor Cheng didn't stand on airs either. He made the old lady only a hasty salute, then spotted the great kang as if it were kin, scrambled up onto it, shuffled over to the window to prop himself against something, warily checked that no one was outside, and only then let out a slow breath.

The whole room stole glances at one another, finding it more than passing strange.

When Doctor Cheng had come round, he cupped his hands, his face flushed red: "These days the cold runs deep. I took a chill inside and out, and couldn't hold up in the end. A touch unwell. Truly a discourtesy. I beg the old lady's pardon."

Half the room couldn't follow the words. The old lady clapped her hands and glanced at her grandson, with a look of what did I tell you.

Chen Dasheng nodded gravely. The learned men he knew were all this same sort, talk you couldn't follow, and jabber without end.

Of course, his wife's jabbering was different. It was rather nice to look at, and her voice was good to hear. Only the losing-her-temper-and-coughing-blood was too frightening.

Meng Wanquan, a good sort, propped himself one-handed on the kang-edge and sat too, edging up not far from Doctor Cheng: "Ai, it's that we got in a fright. We didn't know you were poorly today, it's our fault. The thing is, we asked you here because..."

Doctor Cheng settled himself and heard it out, and truly came to pity this young woman.

Looking round at all these people still in the dark, Doctor Cheng sighed and said to the old lady: "Ai! Old lady, a house with a worthy wife in it... ai!"

What are you sighing about, damn it?

The old lady nodded: "Just so. Nothing but idle ease, isn't it, taking her comfort all day, well fed and nothing to do! And she, she even..."

Went and coughed up blood for sport.

Doctor Cheng, years in the army camp, knew at bottom how to talk to these people. He said plainly: "Old lady, the 'worthy' I mean isn't idleness. This granddaughter-in-law of yours is truly a fine one, more than good enough to match the legitimate son of a third-grade minister's house..." He looked at Chen Dasheng, crouched in the corner, his eyes forever stealing toward the west room, and shook his head.

The old lady wouldn't have it: "How you talk. My Scabby's a sixth-rank now, too! Besides, we're the Emperor's own gatekeepers now."

Still not seeing the state of things. A servant's heart through and through.

What was the use of saying much to this old lady?

Doctor Cheng didn't waste the effort. He said to Meng Wanquan instead: "Go ask the young mistress to come out first. Coughing blood is no small thing. Let me feel her pulse."

At that, not waiting for the others, Chen Dasheng shot to his feet and ran to the west-room door to call her: "Come, come out, will you, wi... Qian'er? The doctor's here, let him have a look at you. I know I was wrong just now. Tell me slowly and I'll understand. Won't you let me make it up to you?"

After a moment Qi Qian'er came out, her eyelids a little red and swollen. She went to the east room, saluted Doctor Cheng first, and then felt another pang inside.

Doctor Cheng felt her pulse a while, stroking the mustache he'd just stuck back on: "The young mistress has long had a grievance pent in her breast. Coughing out that stifled anger is no bad thing. Only, the qi in you now runs wild and scattered. Best find the proper path in the end, and carefully smooth your channels."

Qi Qian'er's heart gave a jolt. She looked up at Doctor Cheng, and saw him nod at her faintly. There are more good people in this world than not, she thought. Muddling through my days before, I never knew there were remarkable folk right beside me. And now he knows what I am, and doesn't expose me, but even helps me cover it...

She thanked him again, gravely.

Seeing the two of them lost in fog, the old lady asked quickly: "Such a big mouthful of blood? Should we get some medicine for her? We're small yet, an ordinary dose would take effect..."

Before she'd finished, Chen Dasheng dug out several ten-tael cakes of silver from among the folded robes at his side, top-grade official mint from the old Junzhou days.

He didn't think twice. He pushed the silver cakes forward in one shove and said to Doctor Cheng, most sincere: "Trouble you. She's coughed blood, she's my wife now. Whatever the illness, I'll bear it, treat her! Whatever the medicine, you just prescribe it. We're not afraid of spending silver, I've got money!"

Seeing the silver cakes, the old lady's hands and feet trembled. But in the end she said nothing, only gazed eagerly at Doctor Cheng.

"She's small yet! Never taken medicine. Give her any old thing, it's sure to work at one dose."

Doctor Cheng looked at the silver and said to Qi Qian'er with a smile: "This is a rare good household indeed."

Then he shook his head at the old lady: "A few days' rest and she'll be well. Only, these next days, don't go provoking her to anger."

Hearing there was no money to spend, the old lady let out a breath: "Well and good. Provoke her, would I? That'd be the end of my old life!"

But Qi Qian'er looked at Doctor Cheng and said: "You know, don't you, that the place he serves is the palace."

Seeing her distress, Doctor Cheng said, smiling: "Don't fret, little sister-in-law. You know how it is on my side, day in, day out I deal with just such people." He pointed at Meng Wanquan: "None of them bad men, all honest and dutiful. But the same as this one, no following plain talk either. He has his own reasoning. You speak to him soft and explain till your lips split, and he thinks it's you in the wrong, to be talking so much.

"That time I had him boil medicine at the great pot. One potful yields a basin, and he'd yield three. Fine now, everyone had medicine to drink. But within a few months, the other infirmaries emptied out one by one, while his place was packed to bursting. Whatever the wound, always slow to heal. Wasting grain day after day, more lost than gained. And when they came looking into it from above, he took twenty army-strokes before it sank in."

Meng Wanquan grinned sheepishly: "Hey, how'd this turn to me? Wasn't it after that I did whatever you said? And what's this to do with today? All well and good, and why bring me up?"

Qi Qian'er sighed helplessly: "If a slip on the palace side were only a beating, I wouldn't be afraid! Even if he were stripped of his post and sent back to the fields, I could keep him fed with no trouble..."

At that Chen Dasheng's heart eased and filled with honey, and he was off in his wild fancies again.

At his ear his wife was still complaining of him: "Over there, either nothing goes wrong, or the moment it does he can't even say where the wrong was done to him. And then a whole household is buried with him, and none of them knowing what they died for."

The people around jumped. How had it come to dying?

The more Chen Dasheng listened, the more wronged he felt. He wasn't so foolish as that, surely?

Seeing him so pitiful, Doctor Cheng said with a smile: "Young mistress, take a word from me. Reason with them about the two rivers and three seas, they don't understand, and don't understand is all there is to it! It's no fault of his. Go slow.

"Better the young mistress do as I did: set them rules in the camp. So long as they act by my rules, nothing can go amiss. Given time, when a thing stands before them and comes out to its end, they'll understand of themselves. You're young still. To force decades of another's hard-won sense into a body in one instant simply won't do."

This much Chen Dasheng could follow. He came over quick, stammering to Qi Qian'er: "Yes, yes, yes, you just say it. I'll do as you say, truly, I'll do as you say, whatever you say goes! All right? Let's not be angry, all right?"

Qi Qian'er looked at that face so sweet. Aiya, it truly vexed her to death.

She couldn't look. She turned her face away.

Seeing him so, the old lady sighed. Done for! Here's another Chen Siniu.

Yu Qingguan and the rest glanced at one another and thought the same. Poor young general, all that trouble for nothing. Done for! The chief's fixed for this life.

Chen Dasheng came round in front of Qi Qian'er and pleaded: "I'll do as you say, truly I will."

Qi Qian'er felt wronged at once, pursed her lips, and pointed at the kang: "Sit over there!"

Chen Dasheng nodded fast, kicked off his shoes onto the kang, and sat bolt upright before his wife, all entreaty in his eyes, seeing no one else in the world.

The others, helpless, could only follow him up onto the kang and sit straight too.

When they were all in order, Qi Qian'er steadied herself and said in earnest: "You uncles may curse me in your hearts for a madwoman. But some things must be made plain today."

Yu Qingguan and the rest shook their heads together. They weren't fools, and they'd no wish to go flying into the wall as a griddle-cake.

Qi Qian'er said gravely: "Then, then I'll say it. From today, the first thing you're to do is this. Every morning rise before light, and once up, sweep your rooms and your courtyard, and get yourselves clean, inside and out.

"Bathe every fifth day. Change your underclothes every second day. Wash your feet and face before you touch the bedding at night. Comb your hair and wash your face daily, no slacking. Rinse your mouth with green salt morning and evening. Two meals a day, and remember to rinse after eating..."

Doctor Cheng had thought the little wife was about to say who-knew-what. He hadn't expected something so like the Women's Precepts. He shook all over holding in his laughter. Then, thinking it through, he couldn't help admiring her.

Bearing is the ground of all dealings between people. Rough soldiers and coarse men don't trouble over it. So a squad turned out clean among them, now, that would be interesting.

He looked at Qi Qian'er, and Qi Qian'er said, dead earnest, to Chen Dasheng: "Can you manage that?"

Chen Dasheng thought a moment, feeling only that it was a bother. But she'd named only the first rule, and whatever came, he had to manage it.

He nodded, certain: "Yes! I can do it, and they can too."

Yu Qingguan and the rest looked at one another, every hope dashed.

Qi Qian'er let out a breath, her face softening: "Second: the days may be good now, but each of you is to spend at least a good two hours a day practicing your craft..."

Chen Dasheng blinked: "Craft?"

What craft had he? Since when?

Qi Qian'er made a saber-stroke at the empty air.

Oh, that craft. Fine! No armored cavalry to cut down for them, but the saber could still be learned. Everyone in the guard garrison knew the saber, and they could ask any of them freely.

She, of course, took no account at all of whether the others were willing.

"Third: rank and emolument the Emperor gives, you may take. What others give or promise, you take none of. Can you do it?"

"What's emolument?"

"Gold and silver, jewels, an office, a house, land and satin, a pretty wife, a fine horse that runs a thousand li a day, shopfronts past counting..."

"Little Hua gave a horse."

"Little Hua is your brother. What you have, you may of course give him. That's not the same as an outsider. An outsider's things you must never touch."

"Mm! Remembered, remembered it this time!"

"Third: the duties the Emperor charges you with, the tasks laid on you, confirm them clearly with your superior. What's yours to do, don't dare slack at. What's not yours, don't do a jot extra. Remembered?"

"Mm, remembered."

Do unpaid work for the fun of it?

"Fourth: a colleague treats you to drink. Remember to return the treat. Once, twice, and by the third find a way not to go. A superior lays on wine, or someone you don't know well invites you, then... then go ask Lord Zeng whether to go."

"Lord Zeng?"

"Mm, you said the Emperor set him to look after you, so ask him."

"And if Lord Zeng's not there?"

"Then wait..."

Guan Si'er, bored at the back, saw the air had eased and poked his head out: "Sister-in-law, and if he never comes?"

Qi Qian'er shot him a look: "Then go ask the Emperor!!"

That was temper talking.

Yu Qingguan pinched him. Guan Si'er stuck out his tongue and drew his head back in.

But Chen Dasheng nodded in earnest: "Good! Remembered!"

"Fifth: this time back, first thing of any weight, find yourselves a teacher. Observe every courtesy and take him as your master in good earnest. If he'll have you, then every day make time to learn your letters and figures from him. And from then on, at every festival, honor your teacher as you would your own father."

Careless as anything, another father.

The old lady, silent all this while, now looked up: "Yes, yes! Nothing matters more than this. Whatever else, you must know your figures and letters yourselves, so never again need you fear being sold off by another."

This time they all nodded in earnest together: "Remembered."

Qi Qian'er, for all that, looked barely into her teens now. Indulging herself, and the old lady indulging her, she'd grown a touch spoiled. With everyone giving way to her, she let herself run on.

Seeing them so biddable, she showed a bit of a smile: "Mm, then, sixth: hereafter, whoever dares 'reward' you, whoever talks that rotten talk of 'a reward for you,' from that man you keep your distance. Never deal with him again, and you owe him no respect either! The thing or the money, throw it straight back to me! And say: no merit, no reward."

"No merit, no reward?"

"Mm, meaning: I only labor for the Emperor. I've done no work for your house. I'll take nothing of yours."

"Oh, remembered!"

Seeing Chen Dasheng take the lesson, Qi Qian'er couldn't help her greed, and added a line: "You're the court's commissioned officers, and so are they. By what right do they reward you? And any man who isn't even an official yet dares reward you, that one's black to the very heart. He looks down on you, takes you for his slaves."

Doctor Cheng sighed faintly. These were, after all, seven marquises the Emperor had made. In this room, himself included, were seven seventh-grade officials, one full sixth-grade, and a junior-seventh captain, and here they were being schooled like three generations of grandsons.

But turning it over carefully, these rules, if the few dolts before him could keep them, and keep them a lifetime, then not a household's wealth only, but a lifetime's good name, would be theirs, secure.

Whatever the sage, all say: look first to a man's character. Birth comes second.

A few boys of bond-slave origin, neither cringing nor overbearing, self-respecting and self-loving, honoring their teacher and the Way, loyal to the Emperor, doing their utmost by their duty. No force could break that. This was the great straight road of the human world.

That such a young girl could see so deep was rare past saying. And then he thought of the one at his own home, who knew nothing but the kang! And in his heart he envied Chen Dasheng to the full.

Chen Dasheng ran through it once in his mind, and then even asked: "Is there more?"

Behind him the men drew a breath of cold air as one.

There was. How could there not be.

"Seventh: the taverns a commoner can't afford, the perfumed houses with girls to keep you company, the gambling dens, the places for dog-fights and cock-baiting. The moment you see one, back off fifty paces for me, keep well away. Remembered?"

The mood turned oddly queer. The old lady eyed Qi Qian'er sidelong, and settled this one for certain: "They can't remember it! Break their legs first! Gambling's grand fun, no amount of money's enough to fill that pit!"

At once the few nodded like chickens pecking rice.

Seeing them take it in, Qi Qian'er smiled: "Then the eighth, and the last: from now on, whatever drops on the ground, no matter what it is, you're not to pick it up. Remembered?"

"Eh?" The old lady was aghast, and blurted: "What if there's no one about?"

Qi Qian'er fixed her with a look: "You're not to pick it up either!"

No court sixth-rank Lady scavenging the ground for junk. Word of that getting out would make Chen Dasheng and the rest grossly unfilial.

Oh, the old lady wouldn't have it. She stood up and made for the door.

Seeing her about to lose her temper, Doctor Cheng hurried to smooth it over: "Old lady, just now at the crossing I saw Madam Tao's youngest son."

The old lady's step halted, her eyes lighting up: "That Fourth of hers, that stayed down in the four southern commanderies as a general's aide?"

She wanted to go and show off her officer grandson right now.

Doctor Cheng nodded, turned his face to Qi Qian'er, and said with meaning: "Word is he ran afoul of something and was cashiered home by his superior."

So that was it after all.

Qi Qian'er drew a breath, and climbed down off the kang again.

Everyone was frightened now by this move of hers, and cried together: "You needn't come down!!"

But Qi Qian'er said, smiling: "Come down I must. I've said a great heap today. No telling how many rules you've kept..."

Chen Dasheng looked up quick: "Kept them all."

Qi Qian'er said: "Keeping them isn't enough. There's a lesson to be eaten as well."

A lesson too?

The whole room edged silently backward. Only Chen Dasheng gazed foolishly at his wife.

That said, Qi Qian'er took the key from her waist, opened the farthest kang-cabinet, and drew out a bundle.

One look and the old lady near fainted. She said, trembling: "Qian'er? What, what are you going to do?"

Qi Qian'er slowly opened the bundle. Everyone saw two bolts of colored brocade, real gold thread worked into peonies and luan-birds.

At a glance it was a costly thing. The light from outdoors ran along the silk threads, and the very light seemed to flow and stir alive.

Qi Qian'er took one bolt in her hand, put the other away, locked it up again, and only then said to the old lady: "This is my bolt."

Then she cradled the brocade and said, in earnest, to Chen Dasheng: "This came with the edict, the day of the patent. Eunuch She said in the old days they granted whole sets of a titled lady's robes. But there's no imperial household office yet, so he had the Ministry of Rites turn out two bolts from the old dynasty's stores for us. Given quietly, none of the other titled ladies got any. It's not on the roll of imperial gifts, so this we can use as we please."

She stroked the bolt of brocade tenderly: "To those rich folk this may be an ordinary thing, nothing they'd mind. But among common people, where is there ever such a fine thing? This was likely made for a consort of old.

"I've seen a bit of the world too, but in all my life I've never seen brocade so fine. The two of us even talked it over. When we die one day, we'll use this for the outermost shroud. A dignity no one else could match."

She looked up and said, earnest, to Chen Dasheng: "Today you ate that man's five-tael sheep for nothing. Whatever this brocade is worth, we'll price it at fifty taels and pay Madam Tao back with it."

The old lady reeled, ready to fight Qi Qian'er to the death. But Qi Qian'er glared at her: "The old lady's to eat this lesson too! I'm making it hurt on purpose. Hereafter, whatever grade your grandsons reach, you're never to take so much as a copper of anyone's for nothing. From now on, you take a tael of a man's silver, I pay him back ten. You take a hundred, I pay him a thousand. And I ask you, does that hurt or not."

The old lady clutched her chest and wept: "I don't want to live anymore."

But Qi Qian'er cradled the brocade and made to go out, saying as she went: "Then let's die together! You go first, I'll be right behind you."

Chen Dasheng stepped up and caught Qi Qian'er, looking into her eyes: "I was wrong. You needn't do this. I've remembered it all, everything you said."

But Qi Qian'er said: "I know you're clever, that you catch anything at one telling. But that's still not enough! When the days are good and the man goes soft, the memory fades. There'll always come a day you forget.

"I have to make it hurt you, truly, just once, so you'll keep it in mind! Granny took a man's thing, and I pay tenfold. You take a man's thing, and hereafter I'll pay a thousandfold. I'll not hide it from you, I've dowry shopfronts still. You go right ahead and squander! If it truly comes to my not being able to pay, I don't mind going begging with you!"

The two of them looked at each other so, until Chen Dasheng slowly let go and stood aside: "Then, I'll go with you, wife."

Qi Qian'er turned away, cradling the brocade, and said as she walked out: "We've not bowed at the wedding yet. Who's your wife!"

Chen Dasheng stood there and laughed, then hurried a few steps after her: "Ah, of the old Huo house, that Qi Qian'er!"

The old lady lay sprawled on the kang, weeping as she gathered up the few silver cakes and slipped them into her sleeve, wailing: "Sovereign Heaven above, the old Chen graves are drowned under water. When will the mounds ever rise clear again? This is a she-devil come down into the world. I'll not live, oh Heaven... strike her dead! Strike her dead... strike that shameless living hell-hag Qiao dead!!"