Chapter 79

The smell of cooking meat hung in the air. The sing-song of the opera-yard came and went, there and not there.

Meng Wanquan had told his tale twice through that day, and his throat had gone sore. He drank three cups of tea one after another, then smacked his lips and sighed: "...and only after that was there this Guard Lane in the world at all, and our good days began. Before you elder brothers came, Quanhou Street had two capable young wives. One was Madam Li of the chessboard court, wife of Tang the bureau director of the Board of Punishments. The other was our own Madam Huo.

"And what was Madam Li's birth? She was the true-born daughter of the Grand Tutor of the day. Yet at the lane-mouth, if her carriage met our madam's, it was she who gave way first. On the strength of what? On the strength of our young madam's gift for keeping a house, her care of people, her tenderness to her husband, her duty to the old. Her conduct is such that no one dares look sidelong at her. They can only respect her.

"And what are we? What roots have we? I'll say it to our own shame. Without the young madam pushing behind us, without those six words she wrote back then, every last one of us would still be suffering it out in this world. Master She from the palace came to the house once and said a thing I've never dared forget. He said our young madam sees the road ahead better than a man, and sees three steps further besides. The only pity of it is that she was born a woman. Were she a man, she'd be the makings of a great border-governor, of a chancellor or a minister of state..."

Meng Wanquan finished, and no one spoke for a long while. Then Chen Dazhong gave a cry and turned to glare at his wife: "What are you pinching me for?"

Li-shi's face went red with embarrassment. Chen Dazhong had a guilty devil in him, so he dared not say another word. He only muttered: "So many people here, don't go moving about."

Li-shi rounded on him angrily and said to Meng Wanquan: "Brother Quanzi, this isn't to be laid at my door. From the very first day he married me this fellow was at it, day in and day out. Granny's been bullied, Granny's had a hard time of it, Granny's had it so bitter. And, Granny didn't go to Wuyang because she feared the fourth branch would drag the whole family's name down, so she'd borne it.

"He'd worked himself into a temper over it. I'd only been in the door a few days, I didn't know how things stood. The whole road here he'd say it a few times a day. Back the old lady up! Back her up! So yesterday I came and threw my weight about, and who'd have known it was money we were snatching from the fourth uncle's hand? Let me say it plain. The one who looked down on people with dog's eyes was that fool who didn't know the inside of it. It was never any of us!"

She looked at Kou-shi and at Chen Dayong's wife Luo-shi, and the two nodded at once. None of them would carry that name.

The wives all nodded together. What they'd been thinking all along was this: the more you praise a thing, the more you must be hiding.

Yesterday the old lady had been grander than they'd looked for, and the life she led was no common wealth. But wasn't that a show put on to fool them? Wasn't the old lady swallowing her grievance and not daring to speak it?

Meng Wanquan laughed, easy and light: "Hai, how could a letter say it all out? Jolting along the road, if it fell into the wrong hands it would only make trouble for you. Dasheng follows the Emperor now, and if some scheming soul read it, the harm would run deep. You've mistaken it, sisters. Say it out and it's done. Our young madam cares nothing for these household squabbles."

That put Li-shi and the rest out of temper. Oh. So the young madam didn't stoop to household squabbles, and they did?

Sore at heart, and remembering how high and mighty she'd been at the old house that day, Li-shi reached out and pinched Chen Dazhong again. Chen Dazhong dared not cry out, and his handsome face only went the sterner.

Meng Wanquan went on: "As for the business between Granny and the fourth uncle, I'm not gilding the young madam. From the day she came into the Chen house she pressed that Qiao's head to the ground, and never once let her lift it and be somebody again. Qiao still bears a concubine's name to this day. And I'll say a foolish thing. I used to hate that woman too, and blamed her for how she was to our old lady behind her back. But there's no settling accounts with a back-house woman. Do you know what the young madam said?"

He looked round at them and smiled: "The young madam said, when a thing goes wrong, don't start with how the back-house woman behaved. A back-house woman acts by the man's face. If you don't stand straight yourself, how dare you ask for a clean back house? If the fourth uncle held the old lady in his heart, Qiao would never dare. So the most hateful one in all the world isn't Qiao. It's...

"Never mind. It's enough to know it in your heart. He's an elder, when all's said, so let's give him a wide berth. He's the last one of that generation left breathing. If he goes, the old lady will never shake off the name of a mother who kills her sons. And a mother may say all she likes that she doesn't think of him, but let him die, and it takes half her life with it."

Everyone was quiet. Li-shi was quick-witted, when all was said, and after a while she said: "Right. If it weren't for your kind word tonight, Brother Quanzi, meeting these three muddleheads, aye, and Dingxiang counts for half a muddlehead, we'd have offended the great benefactor of the house. It's only our first day, so let it be an old misunderstanding from when we weren't yet acquainted. It's nothing! From now on we'll get on well with little Fourth's wife. This house's fortune she built up bit by bit. Had she not held us in her heart, she could have given us not one roof-tile, never mind a fine house, and no one could have said a word against it. Rest easy, we..."

"You what?" An aged voice came from beyond the door. Everyone rose in fright, and saw two little maids helping the old lady in.

The old lady came in, glared round at them all, and let herself be sat on the kang. It was a good while before she said: "I said, why can't I see hide nor hair of a soul just now. I thought, what's afoot. So it's all a to-do because you've fallen out with my Qian'er?"

Chen Dazhong feared his granny would take it hard, and hurried to explain: "Granny, it's nothing, no falling out. It was only that we hadn't talked it through."

The old lady pointed at him and scolded: "Your father was a muddlehead who looked only at the surface, and I see you're of the same seed. You'll come to nothing much. I said to myself, my Qian'er hasn't come near me all day, I thought she was sulking, and it turns out it's you who've fenced my good girl off from me. Ai, what am I to say to that? Best you none of you had come home. We mother and daughter got on well enough without you."

Seeing her grandsons hang their heads in shame, the old lady said to First-Moon: "When the play breaks up tonight, quietly ask your mistress over. We'll have a word among ourselves. Some things are best said out."

That said, she got down off the kang, took First-Moon's arm, and went.

The rest sat there, and it was a queer feeling in their hearts.

This day was the Little New Year. The play broke up early in the evening, and at the turn of the hour they saw the Kitchen God off to heaven. Later the old lady sent for Qi Qian'er, but word came back to wait a while. She hadn't finished burning the grass-horse yet, and would come when it was done.

So the roomful of them sat again in a ring, waiting on this young wife of the fourth branch.

An elder had sent for her, and she'd put it off just like that, and with such an easy conscience too. It set Chen Dazhong and Chen Dayi looking at each other, at a loss what to make of it.

But the old lady seemed rather to laugh, as if a weight were off her mind. When she'd laughed she said: "Ai, I said she was an open one, one who can snub a body. That's her not making a thing of it at all!"

Seeing they didn't follow, she smiled: "Think her wilful past bearing, do you? Heh! Never mind you. Even her own foster-father, if she thinks him wrong, gets snubbed just the same. If she started reasoning it out politely with you, why, then you'd be an outsider."

At that they all laughed together, and the quiet Luo-shi said: "Granny, by your telling, you've had your share of snubbing too?"

The old lady nodded, and there was a strange note in it, half proud and half showing off: "She can lay down the law to me, right enough. All day it's don't eat this, don't eat that! Don't play with old Madam Tao, don't go running about in the snow. Cross her and the wretched girl can hold it in, she'll not speak to you seven or eight days together, hmph!"

She's brought you to heel like this, and there's no telling what you're so proud of.

Chen Dazhong gave a sheepish smile and was about to speak, when someone outside the courtyard said: "The mistress is here..."

That word, "the mistress is here," came in ripples. The old lady's servants must all be out in the yard to greet her. Even Dame Li, who'd been all smiles and few words these last days, was out there, saying with the fondest, most fawning air: "Aiyo, my mistress, the old lady's wanted you the whole day. Wherever did you get to? We couldn't find you anywhere."

Then the young wife's pretty voice came in from the yard: "Don't you flatter me. She's got her own dear grandsons now, and three sweet grandsons'-wives came all at once. Is there room left in her eye for me?"

And then the pretty one began to scold: "She's gone soft in the head, and you all go along with her? That room's stuffed close with warm air, and out here the snow's coming down. One chill on top of one heat and you'll fall sick and make work for me! I tell you, if your head aches tomorrow, don't come whimpering to me!"

The old lady, sharp as ever, shut the window with a snap and sat up straight. Seeing everyone looking at her, she said, rather deflated: "She, she's not wrong, mind. I'm only giving way to her. Most days I scold her plenty too..."

Qi Qian'er lifted the curtain and came in: "You call it giving way, being pig-headed and making trouble! I won't even bother to say it."

She came in, and behind her Jixiang's wife carried a stack of account-books and a small chest.

Qi Qian'er made her courtesies to the cousins and their wives, and took the bows of Cui You and Dingxiang. Then Jixiang's wife set the things down on the kang and withdrew.

Once Jixiang's wife was gone, the old lady grew anxious. She pointed at the things on the kang, her lips trembling a little, and asked: "Qian'er? What do you mean by this? You're never going to stop caring for me? You, you gave your word. You said you'd see me to my grave, that you'd get me my thirteen-layer shroud..."

Even if every one of her grandsons neglected her, the old lady would not have despaired so. They'd never been to be relied on. In a whole lifetime the old lady had learned one thing sure. In all this world it was only Qian'er she could lean on. The girl was stronger than she was, and saw further. As for the rest, she'd long ceased to trust them.

In that broken temple on the famine road, she'd watched the men of a family hide their heads while the women were dragged off, and from that day she trusted them no more.

Qi Qian'er, afraid she'd fret herself, went quickly and took her hand: "Nothing's the matter. You do stir up trouble, old lady. Whoever said I'd stop caring for you? If you like, when I die I'll not have your stinking grandson, I'll be buried with you and welcome. I'll not leave you this whole life. Set your mind at rest."

Chen Dayong, drinking water just then, sprayed a whole mouthful out. Nobody minded him. They only stared, astonished, at this grandmother and granddaughter.

So. Were the two of them as close as that?

By the old lady's hard, stiff ways of old, none of them could have believed it. That this old woman, playing the rascal like a child, was their own family's old lady? The old lady who'd followed the killing-fields ten thousand li, who dared strip the saber and armor off a corpse and sell them back to the camp for silver?

The old lady cared nothing for what anyone thought. Once Qi Qian'er had promised to look after her, she let out a settled breath, and pressed again: "Truly?"

Qi Qian'er nodded firmly: "Truly."

The old lady looked left and right, then pointed at the account-books and the chest: "Then what do you mean by this?"

Qi Qian'er sat down against her: "What do I mean? When the family was few, going by my way was only making the best of a hard case. But now the men who hold the house have come home. For me to go on doing what isn't mine to do would be the root of disorder in the house. We ourselves may care nothing for it, but in dealing with people you must be above-board at every turn. If someone sees it, and he's your friend, he'll understand, and speak for you to outsiders. If he holds a grudge against you, it's his handle to be sour over. And the whole of our house eats the Emperor's grain."

Hearing that, Chen Dazhong felt worse than ever. He stood and begged Qi Qian'er's pardon first.

Qi Qian'er quickly returned the courtesy and said she didn't blame him.

When they'd all sat again, Chen Dazhong said: "Little sister-in-law, today was all my fault. I didn't understand how things stood at home, and threw my weight about on the side, and chilled your heart."

Qi Qian'er shook her head and only said she didn't blame him. They didn't believe her, and there was no explaining it.

True, the world loves to grasp at power and take a hand in things. But let them live one lifetime with no one to care for them, no one to ask after them, and everything done by their own hands alone, and they'd know how wearying it is. It's not the work that wearies. It's the heart.

To Qi Qian'er's mind, to have the old lady's charge taken off her would be the finest thing in the world. She didn't mind that these few said nothing and touched nothing. Only so was her duty a true duty. Had she clung to the old lady's few hundred mu of land, then however well she did, people would think she was after the old lady's money.

Qi Qian'er stood, took up the account-books, and set them on the men's table: "My heart won't be chilled. In the old days, with Dasheng gone and only me and the old lady at home, everything fell to me, a young wife, to face down. That chilled my heart. Now the house has more menfolk, more to hold the gate up, and there's no telling how glad I am. Come, eldest sister-in-law, second, third, look the old lady's accounts over clear first, and then I'll lay the house's business out for you."

She gave them the account-books. But the chest with the land-deeds and house-deeds she set down by the old lady's knee. She'd not decide that for the old lady.

Since Qi Qian'er had been so open, it would look ill not to read the accounts now. Over the years, Chen Dazhong and the others had done well enough out in the world and learned their basic characters. They looked at one another, sighed, and took up the books.

And there it was. It was all outgoings, and no income at all. The more they read, the more astonished they grew. Not daring to raise it before the old lady, they stole glances at Qi Qian'er.

Qi Qian'er had looked for this, and laughed: "You're wondering there's an outgoings-book and no income-book?"

Behind her the old lady began to cough. But Qi Qian'er would spare her no face, and said it right out:

"Once money goes into our old lady's hand, you expect her to bring it out again? Dream on!"

Chen Dazhong and the rest looked at one another, then laughed, easy in their hearts. Had there been an income-book, they'd have felt guilty taking the accounts on.

Chen Dayong was a plain-spoken man, and he laughed: "Then we're easy. This past year has truly cost you dear, sister-in-law. Rest easy. From now the four households will be dutiful to the old lady together. We'll not have your little fourth branch carry the whole of it any longer."

Chen Dazhong and the rest nodded so too, and none of the young wives spoke against it.

So it should be. Five official gentlemen in one house, save the good-for-nothing next door. If they couldn't keep even one old lady, they'd best not go on living.

The old lady was sharp. At the word she glared, and out came her old sour look: "What? What accounts? Settle what? I can't read a word. What do I know of accounts?"

Qi Qian'er glared straight back: "You old muddlehead. Oh! You saved up a whole year of Dasheng's salary, and now it's gone. Fine. Who were you meaning to slip it to?"

That set the old lady off: "I, I'll slip it to nobody! I saved it for your own good, and you laugh. You'd only waste it. You big sieve, I don't trust you with it. Settle the accounts, my eye. There aren't any! There aren't any!"

Chen Dazhong and the rest were dumbstruck. So this was their own granny. Kept by the little fourth couple, and still she'd manage little Fourth's salary! It was well they'd this open heart and never quarreled with her, but waited on her like the noble dowager of a great house, and got on so well besides. That was a thing no common person could have done.

Turning the outgoings over, they saw the old lady's incense and alms at the temple ran to thirty strings a month and more, every month. And it was all from little Fourth's wife's own dowry silver.

Each of them asked himself the question, and the answer was plain. They couldn't have done it. And had they done it, they'd have chafed, and above all their hearts would have gone cold.

Their old lady, however good her heart within, had a way of going about things and a sour, offending tongue on top, so that however well you served her, she could hold no one to her.

This wife of little Fourth's was a marvel of a woman.

Seeing the old lady turn to playing the rascal, Qi Qian'er told her plainly: "You'll not get out of this today. There are two roads. Either you keep all four grandsons' salaries from now on, or you keep none. That's an elder's fairness. Else you chill their hearts, or you chill mine. Choose."

Nobody said a word. They all bent their heads and smiled.

Dingxiang, now, had inherited the old lady's rashness, but not her money-loving, sour streak.

At the word she was astonished, and said out loud: "Granny, you really are the limit! Look at you, the house you live in, the food, the things you use, all of it my little fourth sister-in-law's own money, and you've the face to take my fourth brother's salary too. Ai, it's only that my little sister-in-law's good-tempered. Now that mother-in-law of mine..."

She hadn't finished when Qi Qian'er turned to her: "A married daughter shouldn't run down her husband's elders at her mother's house. Do it long enough, and even your own people turn cold-eyed on you."

Chen Dingxiang blinked and looked at her sister-in-law: "I mustn't say it?"

Qi Qian'er glanced sidelong at Cui You, who was gazing up at the roof-beam: "Ai, never mind. I'll teach you one wise thing, sister. When your man's by, you mustn't say it!"

A run of coughs broke out one on another, and the room was full of stifled sputtering. Only the blank-faced Dingxiang clapped her hands: "That's right! What am I saying it in front of him for? I'll tell Granny behind his back and have her beat him to death!"

The old lady, past all bearing, pointed at her and scolded: "You fool, hold your tongue!"

No one dared laugh, and in the end it was Cui You they'd tickled into it. He said to the old lady, sheepish: "Granny, don't scold her. Dingxiang's jolted about the country with me and eaten no small hardship. Since my mother and brothers came, it's put her in a hard place. Today I..." He stood and begged Dingxiang's pardon: "Today, before the elder brothers and sisters, and before Granny, I beg my wife's pardon."

When he'd done, Qi Qian'er looked at Dingxiang and pointed at Cui You: "See there? Here's another wise thing. That's a public apology. You think, now he's begged pardon, tomorrow things at home will be better? They won't. It'll be just the same. The mother-in-law who'd trouble you will trouble you still, and the brothers- and sisters-in-law will bring you no fewer troubles. And then, when you complain, he'll say, aiya, I begged my wife's pardon, and you're still nursing it? What more do you want? Shall I kneel to you? And in the end the whole family are good people, and only you stand out as the unreasonable one. Now tell me, is that fool or isn't it?"

Cui You went red in a flash, at a loss how to answer this sharp-tongued little sister-in-law. Never had he dreamed there was such a person in the world, who'd spare a body no face at all before everyone, and whose one stroke went straight to the men's soft spot.

Dingxiang, though, looked as if a light had dawned. She made to speak again, but one glare from her fourth sister-in-law wilted her on the spot.

Then the fool nodded and mumbled: "I see, I see. I'll not ask my sister-in-law in front of him. I'll go and ask her in private."

Qi Qian'er's head ached. She said to the old lady: "See that? She sells me out the moment she's turned round. However badly things go for her later, the moment she rounds on her husband she'll say, it was that little sister-in-law of yours put me up to it."

Cui You, a slippery one, waved his hand at once: "No, no! Sister-in-law, you've read me wrong there."

Qi Qian'er paid him no mind, and said: "I've read no one wrong! With outsiders I'd not say so much. But rest easy, this is a thing I can't teach. How a person's life turns out, you have to eat a few losses yourself before it sticks. Whether your mother and your wife live well together comes down to you, the head of the house, in the end. I tell you plainly, I'll teach nothing. Dingxiang has brothers who've made good and a natal family that won't drag her down. That's enough."

That said, the young wife rolled her eyes, turned, and flung herself against the old lady to wheedle. She caught the old lady's arm and shook it: "Granny, hand over the accounts!"

The old lady, in truth, had seen it clear by now. Aye, what was she holding Dasheng's money for? At her age, if she went off in a hurry, this money here would be common-purse property, and then she'd die with her eyes open.

But to hand it over willingly, that she couldn't quite bring herself to. She fumbled crossly in her sleeve, groped a long while, and at last drew out the key and tossed it to Qi Qian'er.

That made Qi Qian'er glad. She worked her shoes off, climbed onto the kang, opened the old lady's coffer, and dug out the silver bundles, asking as she dug: "Granny, which bundle is my house's?"

The old lady had let it go clean through now, and pointed at the biggest, a red one: "That one. The red."

Qi Qian'er scooped it up without a look and called through the curtain: "Fourth-Moon."

Fourth-Moon answered crisply and came in. Qi Qian'er dropped the bundle into her arms, and Fourth-Moon sank a little under it.

Everyone thought at once, how much money must that be.

"Take it to the bookkeeper and put it on your master's account. From now, whatever your master eats and spends goes on his own book. I'm not keeping him anymore."

The old lady, unresigned, gave Qi Qian'er a slap on the back.

When Fourth-Moon had gone, Qi Qian'er lined up the other bundles and lifted her face to the old lady with a smile: "Granny, these you'd saved for the elder brothers, isn't it?"

The words touched the old lady to the quick. She nodded and said nothing.

Qi Qian'er had come tonight for just this, to loose the knot in the old lady's heart. So she opened the bundles one by one, and out spilled a heap of bright common ingots.

Money is always a good thing. As the heap came into the light, everyone's face went queer, wanting to look and ashamed to, not looking and drawn to it, until Qi Qian'er spoke and they all let out a breath together.

Qi Qian'er stroked the silver ingots: "Your four households' courtyards the old lady had let out for you. Qingfeng's not Yanjing. One courtyard's eleven strings a month, three years three hundred and ninety-six strings, and the old lady's not touched one coin. She saved it all for you."

It was a good while before Chen Dazhong swallowed and said: "Granny, count this our gift of duty to you. We have money."

There was shame in Chen Dazhong when he said it.

In the old days Chen Siniu had been hard on his nephews, and the old lady was far off and couldn't see it. Pared to the bone often enough, how should they not have carried a grievance? So they'd none of them shown their money, but lived poor. In fair truth, if Cui You could put by more than seventeen thousand strings all these years, keeping so many people, then even half as much would be no small sum for them.

At Chen Dazhong's word, Dayi, Dayong, and Dingxiang all nodded. Nothing would make them take the money.

But Qi Qian'er talked them round: "Don't be so. Whatever you gave the fourth branch these years, the old accounts can't be traced now, so don't reckon them up before the old lady either, and spare her the ache of it. Settle the old score tonight, and the old lady can hold her head up and live easy from here on. If you won't take it, don't you leave the old lady hung up in the sky with no way down?"

The old lady's heart ached at it. She looked round in earnest at her grandsons and granddaughter, and at last said, her finger trembling: "Yes. It's just as Qian'er says. Take it. Take it, all of you."

Chen Dazhong and the rest looked at one another, and in the end each took his heavy bundle of silver.

When the four bundles were shared out, there was still a big one left on the kang.

Qi Qian'er pressed her lips in a smile. Seeing them curious, she opened it and showed them.

In an instant their eyes swam. For the bundle held gold peanuts, gold melon-seeds, little gold and silver ingots, and here and there a big coin of the new reign.

The money gone, the old lady's heart was easy, and she slapped her knee and said gladly: "Share this out too. A portion to a household, Dingxiang too!"

But Qi Qian'er said: "This one, this one we won't share."

Seeing them astonished, she fanned a hand at it and smiled slyly: "Come, come, feast your eyes first, and get a good smell of the money. This is the private gift my foster-father and Dasheng slip the old lady on the quiet, and it'll only grow from here. From now, for the sake of this money, I mean to fawn on the old lady and be dutiful to her with all my heart. Else all these fine things would be mine alone!"

That said, she gathered the bundle up and stuffed it back in the coffer, and locked it carefully. Then she sat down again before the old lady, cupped the key in both hands, and said to her in earnest: "It's agreed, then. This life and the last, the one you love best is me. You said I rank first. If you go loving anyone else, I'll, I'll never speak to you again!"

In the candlelight the young wife's face was like a flower, her bright eyes soft, looking at the old lady with the deepest trust.

Something happened in the old lady's heart. It was as if a thing had pricked it, and it ached without her knowing why. Her eyes stung, and holding back the tears she put out her arms and gathered the girl in: "I know! I know! No one shall rank ahead of you. No one holds a candle to you. You're first, first!"

There was no coming between those two. It was a thing everyone saw in a moment.

Chen Dayi turned aside, a little jealous, and asked Meng Wanquan: "You've not said a word all night. What, come to my house to watch the fun?"

Meng Wanquan gave a soft snort: "I'm a foster-grandson. Why shouldn't I come? What would you have me say?"

Should I tell you I watch these two coo at each other day in and day out? Give it time and you'll get used to it too.

Chen Dayi asked low, not following: "Tell me, where did Granny dig this treasure up? Was it truly traded at the roadside that day? Truly ten strings?"

Meng Wanquan hauled his stool a little away, nodded to him, then sat down further off still.

The young madam had said, don't play with a fool.

Ahem. His wife said so too.

Chen Dayi, none the wiser, hauled his stool up to shuffle closer, when someone outside cried in glad surprise: "Old lady, look who's home!"

Before the words had died, hurried feet sounded outside. Then in came a bright-smiling young man, a jade girdle at his waist hung all over with glittering trifles, a gold saber at his hip, a red-tasseled guardsman's helmet on his head, and on him a crimson guard's robe woven with gold and figured with a horned dragon.

He came in calling for Granny, but his eyes were roving everywhere. When they found the little wife he'd longed for, he smiled: "Heh heh, wife, I'm home!"

Only then did he turn to look for his kin. Seeing his eldest cousin he went and caught him in a warm embrace: "Brother! You're back!"

Chen Dazhong was caught quite off guard. It was a while before he could force his younger brother off, and, both hands on his shoulders, look him up and down: "Scabby?"

The young man laughed aloud, and hugged each of his cousins hard, and even patted the teary-eyed Dingxiang: "Dingxiang's grown, married and all. Brother can't hug you anymore..." Then, seeing Dingxiang's round belly, he sighed: "Our Dingxiang's to be a mother."

His sighing done, the fellow put out a hand toward the door, and from outside a bundle was passed in without a sound. Chen Dasheng handed it straight to the old lady: "Granny, take it! This month's salary."