Runners create a disturbance in a brothel,
And a close friend pays a private visit to a jail.
Wu Zhen had not only refused to lend Wu Jingyu the money he wanted to borrow, he had also engaged in some bragging, which Cassia reported to Wu Jingyu, holding nothing back. From that reason, Wu Jingyu nursed a grudge against Wu Zhen and tried to think of some way to avenge himself. As luck would have it, at this time the prefect happened to circulate an order to his subordinates to investigate and arrest anyone caught smoking opium. The two counties of Yangzhou, Jiangdu and Ganquan, dispatched many runners to make arrests throughout the city, and numerous rich households suffered harassment and injury at their hands.
In Ganquan county there was a runner named Bao Guang, who had long been on good terms with Wu Jingyu. The latter wanted to avenge himself on Wu Zhen, and since he knew that every evening Wu Zhen went up to Cassia’s room at Qiang Da’s to satisfy his opium habit, he sought Bao Guang out. “Brother,” he said, “I have a present for you.”
“What’s that?” asked Bao.
“There’s a runner for the Yangzhou Customs named Wu Zhen whose family is worth several thousand and who spends every evening at Qiang Da’s satisfying his habit. Take a few men with you and around the second watch burst into Qiang Da’s, go up to Cassia’s room, and seize Wu Zhen and all his paraphernalia. With the perpetrator and the evidence in hand, you need have no fear that he’ll get off. I’ll be waiting for you in another courtesan’s room, and when you raise the hue and cry, I’ll make out that I know nothing about it and come in and act as mediator. He’ll be terrified of prosecution, and at the very least you should be able to get a few hundred taels out of him. But how would you propose to split the proceeds?”
“The general rule is twenty percent for the mediator, but I’ll give you thirty. There’s just one thing: can we be sure about this?”
“Like catching a turtle in a tub! Otherwise, I’d never have come and told you.” Having reached agreement, the two men arranged to put their plan into operation that evening.
“Do you know how to find your way to Cassia’s room?” asked Wu Jingyu.
“I’ve been to Qiang Da’s several times and had banquets there with courtesans. Hers is the room at the back on the east side, isn’t it?
“That’s right. I’ll see you there this evening.” He took leave of Bao Guang and went home to have his dinner, then left for Qiang Da’s.
A group of clients was being entertained at an introductory tea party in Cassia’s room, and Wu Jingyu took himself off to Paria’s room, which was the one opposite. When Cassia heard that he had arrived, she sent another packet of opium over to him, and he lay down on Paria’s bed and smoked. After some time the clients in Cassia’s room left, and by an odd coincidence at that precise moment Wu Zhen walked in. The lamp was lit for him, and he began to smoke.
During the second watch Bao Guang gathered his colleagues Xiang Guang and Xu Guang, as well as four or five constables, and had supper with them at a restaurant before lighting three torches and heading for Qiang Da’s. Qiang Da welcomed them in front of the reception room. “Is Wu Zhen from the Customs here?” Bao Guang murmured.
“Yes, he’s in Miss Cassia’s room. Would you like to speak to him?”
“Don’t tell him we’re here.” He had the constables sit in the front of the house, while with Xiang Guang and Xu Guang he went to Cassia’s room at the back, pulled aside the door curtain, and walked in. Wu Zhen was lying on the bed with Cassia opposite him, and both were smoking. Wu Zhen had heard steps outside the door, then had seen the door curtain being drawn aside and someone coming in. He thought it must be some acquaintance who had come to see him and scrambled to his feet. Cassia also stood up and, seeing who the men were, extended a welcome. “Godfathers, please take a seat.”
Bao Guang went up to the bed and bowed to Wu Zhen. “Please sit down,” said Wu Zhen. Bao sat on the edge of the bed, while his colleagues sat on chairs at either side. The maid was quick to offer them tea and tobacco.
“Your name is Wu?” asked Bao Guang.
“Yes. But I haven’t asked you your name.”
“I’m Bao Guang.” Pointing to the others, he said, “He’s Xiang Guang, and he’s Xu Guang.” Then, pointing to the lamp, he added, “Brother Wu, please go ahead and satisfy your habit.” He lay down beside the lamp.
Wu Zhen assumed that he wanted to smoke himself, and he said to Xiang and Xu, “Please come over and smoke.”
“We don’t smoke, but you go ahead,” they replied.
Wu Zhen lay down and made a pellet that he placed in the pipe before handing it to Bao Guang. Bao took it but did not smoke. “How big a habit do you have?” he asked Wu Zhen.
“I’m trying to stop, but I still smoke several a day.”
“I wouldn’t bother you unless it was absolutely necessary. We’re runners for Ganquan county, and our chief has sent us over with an invitation for you.”
Wu Zhen was startled. “But who could have accused me? And of what? Kindly show me the warrant.”
“No one has accused you. We’re carrying out orders to investigate and make arrests. When we have a perpetrator and the evidence in hand, why do we need a warrant?” At this point Wu Zhen realized that his opium smoking was the reason.
Just as he was about to explain himself to the runners, someone walked into the room and bowed to everyone. Invited to take a seat, he said, “I came here for some amusement because I had time on my hands after supper. I was just sitting in the room opposite when I heard you brothers arrive, and I gathered you were here on official business. Our brother Wu here is a good fellow, and when I heard what was happening, I felt I had to come over and ask about it. In all the cases I deal with, I try to find a face-saving compromise, but I’m a layman, unfamiliar with official business. I wonder if you might have some suggestions?”
“We, too, have long admired Brother Wu as a good fellow. So long as he treats us fairly, we’ll be able to send him off with a rap on the knuckles.”
“I wonder if you’d mind sitting here for a moment while Brother Wu and I go across to the room opposite? We’ll have a little chat, and then I’ll come back and report.”
“Why not? Go ahead and have your chat.”
The newcomer took Wu Zhen outside. Wu Zhen had immediately recognized him. He realized that because of his refusal to grant the loan, Wu Jingyu had conspired with these men to scare some money out of him. In his fury he would have liked nothing better than to sink his teeth into Wu Jingyu’s flesh, which was why he had let him talk to the runners without acknowledging that he knew him.
Now that he was sitting in Paria’s room, Wu Jingyu said, “I didn’t mean to speak out of turn, but in my opinion this matter needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. Of course it will cost you a few taels, but at least it will save you from being taken to court. It would be too late then for any regrets.”
“What a piece of luck that you just happened to come out and act as mediator!” said Wu Zhen with a sarcastic smile. “Why don’t you figure out how much money I’ll need to come up with?”
“You and I may not be close friends, but we happened to meet here today, and I’ve taken it upon myself to get involved. But you’ll need to give me some figures before I can start talking to them.”
“I may work at the Customs, but I have nothing whatever to do with management. From what these people say, all they’ve got is a general search-and-seize warrant without my name on it. Well, it’s just my bad luck, I suppose. I’ll give them twenty thousand cash. I’d be much obliged if you’d tell them that.”
“Just wait here a moment.”
Wu Jingyu went over to Cassia’s room and said to the runners, “Brothers, I have an offer, but please don’t be offended by it. I had a talk with Wu just now and he said he had a modest offer that won’t fully satisfy you; he’s offering twenty thousand cash for all of you. Note that I’m the honest broker here; I don’t have any stake in the case. Would you gentlemen deign to accept?”
‘Hold others cheap and you cheapen yourself,’” said Xu Guang. “Twenty thousand, why, it’s not even enough for the constables!”
“If he’s tried, he’ll be sentenced to exile,” said Bao Guang. “Even if he chooses to pay a fine instead, he’ll still have to put up thousands of taels. Since you’ve come forward to help him, tell him that if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll give us at least five hundred. Otherwise, we’ll also take Cassia and Qiang Da to court, where they’ll have to pay a lot of money as well as face a criminal sentence. Tell him to add up all the costs.”
Wu Jingyu went back to Paria’s room and spoke to Wu Zhen. “Did you hear what they said?”
“Of course I did, I’m not deaf. If they want hundreds of taels on these trumped-up charges, I wonder how much they’d ask for if I’d committed a murder! To be frank, I may look as if I’m dressed up in grand style, but these clothes are deceptive. Working as a runner for the Customs—that’s just a general title. If I tell people I have no money, they don’t believe me. If I did have a little, I wouldn’t be in this beggarly job. Since our friends found their way to you, I can hardly say that I have no money at all. I’ll offer them forty thousand, so that they can buy themselves a dinner. If that still won’t do, I’ll just have to let them press charges. If it’s my fate to be sentenced, I won’t be able to escape it anyway.”
“Brother, you say they have no warrant, but whether you’re right or wrong about that, if you don’t take this chance to come to terms with them, you’ll be brought to the yamen, where you’ll find it a great deal harder to put your money to work.”
“It’s not that I’m too stupid to see that; the fact is, I really can’t raise the money. Tell them that if they don’t accept the offer, I’ll just have to go to the yamen with them.”
Wu Jingyu went back to Cassia’s room. “He’s prepared to put up forty thousand, not a penny more,” he told them.
The runners were furious. “Let’s hold him in jail until he raises the money!” they said. They called the constables to the back of the house, where they took out their chains and went to Cassia’s room and shackled Wu Zhen. Then they put Qiang Da in chains, too, on the grounds that he had allowed Wu Zhen to smoke a forbidden substance on his premises.
They also put Cassia in chains and were going to take her off with them. Weeping and sobbing, she cried out, “Master Wu, you’re burying me alive! I came here from a hundred miles away and endured the disgrace of making my living in this business. Many of my family depend on me. You and I were lovers! Just ask yourself this: when did I ever get a lot of money from you? Yet today you drag me in to be condemned. How can you bear to see that happen? You can’t say you have no money at all. Add a little more, and ask these godfathers to do me a favor.” Wu Zhen was afraid to involve Cassia in the case, and he asked Wu Jingyu to increase his offer by twenty thousand, but the runners still refused to accept it.
When the runners first arrived, they clearly meant no good, and Sanzi, fearing trouble, had rushed off to get Yu Jiafu. At this point Yu came in and, hearing that Qiang Da was in chains, went straight up to Cassia’s room, where he exchanged greetings with the runners. After learning the details of the case, he entered Paria’s room and quietly explained the situation again to Wu Zhen, urging him to increase his offer and buy himself some peace.
“I’m most grateful for your concern,” said Wu Zhen. “You ask me to increase the payment. It’s not that I can’t bear to part with the money; the truth is, I just can’t raise it. If I agreed to give any more, I wouldn’t be able to pay it.”
“I’m only trying to help. I’m afraid of what you’ll have to go through. Since you can’t raise the money, I won’t keep on urging you. But you’re involving your favorite as well as Qiang Da. What are you going to do about them?”
Wu Zhen whispered in his ear: “Wu Jingyu tried to get a loan out of me, but I wouldn’t give him one. He then conspired with these people to come and frighten me into paying, after which they would divide up the spoils. Well, the one who’s responsible has to suffer the consequences, and neither Qiang Da nor Cassia has any quarrel with them. Could you promise the runners a bit more money on their account? I won’t implicate Qiang Da or Cassia in court, so they needn’t take them away.”
“That’s very generous of you. I’ll go and tell them.”
“I’ve had a talk with Wu,” he said to the runners. “According to him, he really can’t raise the money. I hope you gentlemen can do me a favor and make a reasonable compromise along the lines of what Brother Wu Jingyu has suggested. If you really can’t do it, Wu says he’ll just have to brace himself and get dressed and let you do your duty. He’s prepared to go with you on his own to face a court case. Now I would like to ask you a personal favor. Qiang Da and Cassia have done all they could; would you agree to leave them behind?”
“By rights, sir, I ought to do as you ask,” said Bao Guang, “but Wu Zhen looks down his nose at us. If we don’t make an example of someone, he’ll never pay up with a good grace. Don’t blame us; he even shut you out. You needn’t bother about him. As for Qiang Da and Cassia, we’ll do as you ask, provided they can show us some respect.”
Yu Jiafu spoke to Qiang Da and Cassia. “Now, be a little smarter and offer to host them. I’ve persuaded them to grant you a favor.”
“You know my affairs,” said Qiang Da. “Please beg them to do me a good turn.”
“Godfather, you come here often, but you have no idea what misery I have to put up with,” said Cassia. “I’m indentured here, and every quarter, needless to say, my family comes and takes the money away. But in addition to that, my mother-in-law and husband come several other times during the year, and each time, without any idea of how little I have in my private savings, they clamor for nine or ten strings of cash; they also want their travel paid, and gifts to take back with them, as well as the cost of food and lodging while in Yangzhou, to say nothing of incidental expenses. They came the other day and told me that their house had been flooded and had to be repaired. They also needed money for food, and so on and so forth. They didn’t leave until they’d gotten a dozen strings out of me. I had no money to pay them, so I borrowed ten thousand, discounted ten percent, from Godfather Chen at one percent a month over three months. I don’t have any good clients, and yet every day I need flowers and incidentals, as well as two pellets of that accursed stuff.”
She whispered in Yu Jiafu’s ear: “This is all the doing of that hateful Wu Jingyu. I can’t tell you how many special favors I have to do for that man during the year! Right now I’m burdened with debts running into the tens of thousands. The next quarter’s earnings have been mortgaged to pay for this quarter’s clothes, and even so I’m never properly dressed. And now on top of everything else this has to happen! Godfather, what can I do?” She began to weep.
“‘The King of Hell doesn’t make any distinction between rich and poor,’” said Yu Jiafu. “You may say you have no money, but no one will believe you. If they take you to the yamen, not only will you be disgraced, you’ll also have to pay them off. In my opinion, you should forget about your lack of money. Just promise them something, and then think how you’re going to get it.”
“Thank you, godfather! I hope you’ll be modest in what you promise them. I have nothing I can offer you. I’ll just have to give you a few more kowtows.”
“Don’t be silly!” said Yu Jiafu. “You surely don’t think I’m going to take your and Qiang Da’s money and make them a present of it?”
He told the runners how the two of them had pled poverty and hardship. After lengthy negotiations, they settled on a total of sixty thousand cash, with forty thousand down. The remaining twenty thousand would be due when Wu Zhen had been found guilty in the county court and transferred to the prefecture. If he were found not guilty, the runners wanted the forty thousand in ready cash within one month. Yu Jiafu promised to provide the down payment within three days. Bao Guang agreed but said to him, “You’re the one who suggested this compromise, so you’ll have to guarantee both Qiang Da and Cassia. I’m not just raising difficulties here. I’m afraid that when Wu Zhen gets to court, he’ll implicate them both, and we’ll need you to produce them.”
“Very well.” At last Bao Guang called in the constables and ordered Qiang Da’s chains removed. He and his men then lit their torches and took Wu Zhen away with them in chains, together with the opium paraphernalia.
As they were leaving, Wu Zhen rounded on Wu Jingyu and cursed him bitterly. “I had no feud with you, but because you couldn’t get a loan out of me, you conspired with others to arrest me. When I get to court, I’ll show you no mercy.” Wu Jingyu acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing and walked quietly away. The runners took Wu Zhen to the yamen, wrote out a charge, submitted the opium paraphernalia, and waited for the magistrate to ascend his tribunal and conduct an interrogation.
Let me turn to Yuan You. That day he had been to a relative’s to offer birthday congratulations, and it was not until after supper that he returned to Qiang Da’s. When Paria told him what had happened to Wu Zhen, he stamped his foot in exasperation. “How stupid of him! This sort of thing should never go to court. Were Masters Jia or Wei in the house when the runners came?”
“If either of them had been here, all of this could have been avoided.”
“It’s sheer bad luck that I was busy and they weren’t here. Oh! This would have to happen!” He promptly left Qiang Da’s and went to the Ganquan yamen and sought out an old acquaintance, whom he asked for information.
“His Honor just now ascended his tribunal and ordered Wu Zhen to be given thirty blows across the face and to be held in jail,” he was told.
Anxious as Yuan You was, it was now nearly midnight and too late to get into the jail, so he returned to Qiang Da’s and told Paria what he had learned. When Cassia heard that Yuan You had come from the yamen, she rushed in and asked, “You’re just back from the yamen. What’s happening with Master Wu?” When Yuan You told her, she burst out sobbing and returned to her room.
Yuan You stayed there that night, then early the next morning hurried in through the main entrance of the yamen and went to the gate of the jail. Because he had once been confined in the Jiangdu county jail himself, he was familiar with prison rules and regulations. Seeking out a jailer by the name of Ge Ai, he asked, “I want to visit Wu Zhen, and I’m prepared to sweeten things for you and your colleagues.” When Ge Ai saw that he spoke the prison language, he let him in the gate and led him past the shrine of the prison god to the registration office. There he found Wu Zhen, his whole body shackled, swaying back and forth in the corridor outside the office. His cheeks were red and swollen, and his face was stained with blood.
Seeing the pathetic state Wu Zhen was in, Yuan You went up to him and called his name. When Wu Zhen saw it was Yuan You, tears welled up in his eyes. “Brother, all because of a trivial little request that I didn’t grant, that fiend played this vicious trick on me! I expect it will be hard to avenge in this life and I’ll just have to wait until the next.”
“They may have conspired against you, but it’s also the result of your own bad fortune. Set your mind at rest. The important thing is to find some way to get you off.”
“When disaster strikes like this, what can I do? I’m held in jail, and I have an opium habit. Last night was more than any man could bear. I have a burning sensation inside me, and if things go on like this, in three or four days I’ll be dead.”
Yuan You took several pieces of Korean ginseng from the purse at his waist and popped them into Wu Zhen’s mouth. “You weren’t very strong to begin with. In addition you have an opium habit, and last night you were locked up here and punished. You felt remorse and anger, and you were deprived of opium, so of course you’re miserable. The first thing to do is to get the torture instruments removed, then find some way for you to give up opium. After that we can start thinking of how to get you off.”
“My boy is still very young, and I’ve never gotten along with my family—the trouble I’m in will give them no end of enjoyment. And there’s no one on my wife’s side who’s capable of handling things for me, no one who can step forward and take the lead. At present you’re like a blood brother. Would you mind acting as mediator? If you need money, go and speak to my wife. Tell her to think of some way of raising it.”
Yuan You agreed, then took leave of Wu Zhen and said to Ge Ai, “Brother Ge, let’s go over to the teahouse for a little chat.” Ge Ai accompanied him out of the prison to a teahouse.
If you are wondering what they said to each other, please turn to the next chapter.
