Chapter 8: Knowing Gratitude and Grievance, Husband and Wife Come to Blows — Showing Filial Love, Mother and Son Grieve Together

When Lady Zheng realized that Yi Xing had acted at Guixing's bidding in striking Liang Tianlai, she blazed with sudden fury, not pausing to think of what was proper. She swung her palm full at Yi Xing's face. She grabbed hold of him and would not let go, and broke into loud weeping: "You shameless, conscienceless wretch — you have the face to come tell me this! It is not you I am worried about — it is me you have ruined, left with no face to show in front of anyone! What wrong did your Ling ancestors commit to produce a line of descendants who are every one of them brigands!" This clamor startled all the neighbors, who crowded in to see — thinking it was the usual sort of domestic spat and coming to mediate. Two men, seeing Yi Xing standing there dumbly while Lady Zheng clutched her husband and did nothing but wail and rant, assumed she was being the unreasonable one and called her a shrewish woman. They asked Yi Xing, "Yi Xing, friend — what is this about?" Yi Xing said weakly, "I have no idea what she's on about either!" Lady Zheng, seeing the room now full of people and knowing Yi Xing had no means of escape, released her grip and let him go. She arranged her hair, and then addressed the assembled crowd:

"Today I am fortunate to have all of you here — please judge this matter with me! That our household is poor, all of you know. In a year there are always times when no smoke rises from the kitchen — and through all of those times, it was our Liang family's mistress who kept us going with firewood, rice, silver, and coin. Most of you may not know about this. Last year when my mother-in-law died, there was not a single cash in the house. I thought — there's been a death in the family; it would be awkward to go to relatives in such a state, lest they should think it inauspicious. So I sent him to our great wealthy nephew Guixing to borrow a few taels of silver. He went three times in a row, and each time was told there was none to be had. The fourth time, they said the young master had gone to the provincial capital. Everyone here — this is Guixing, from his own family! At that time the weather was already hot; lying there in the house, the old woman was about to start giving off a smell. Not even a single sheet of spirit money had been burned. I was desperate — no way up to heaven, no way down through the earth. In the end, with no other choice, I went again to our Liang family's mistress. In the end, the coffin, the burial clothes — not one thing was not supplied by the mistress. The next day she even thought to send Qifu over with twenty taels of silver for the pallbearers and the burial expenses — I was so moved I could not find words. In front of Qifu I burst into tears..." Lady Zheng broke down weeping again, and after a long while continued, "I received such kindness from that mistress, and I dare not forget it even in dreams — I have spoken of it often to all of you, and you all know it." She pointed fiercely at Yi Xing: "You shameless, conscienceless man! That was your own mother's business. You received such enormous kindness from others — I ask you, even if you were to cut flesh from your own body and give it to that family to eat, could you repay even a fraction of it?" She turned back to the crowd: "As for our wealthy nephew Guixing — there were times we had borrowed so much from the Liang family with no prospect of repayment that we felt embarrassed to go back, and we would try young master Guixing instead — but he was either asleep or had gone out. Granted, the money is his money, the poverty is my fate — if he would not lend, I had no grounds to blame him or resent him. But who would have expected that today our noble wealthy nephew has suddenly turned generous — not only willing to give, but willing to send! He has promised five loads of rice to this shameless wretch here, in exchange for going and beating our mistress's son Tianlai. And this shameless wretch, as if his conscience had fallen into a cesspit today, went and actually did it! Everyone — please judge for yourselves what kind of logic this is!" Several in the crowd spat in contempt at Yi Xing. Lady Zheng continued, "He had the gall to come home afterwards and tell me with a grinning face! Everyone — after committing this shameless, graceless, and ungrateful act — an act of our own Ling family stock — I will have no face to show the world hereafter! It is only my bitter fate to have married this shameless brigand of a husband!"

She began weeping loudly again and cried, "I would be better off dying right now, so I don't have to watch you carry on!" With that she threw herself sideways, head first toward the wall. Fortunately there were many hands nearby and she was caught in time — she had nearly struck an iron hook hanging there from which an oil jar was suspended. The crowd all called out to restrain her: "Sister-in-law! This is not a matter to die over — speak calmly if you have more to say." Lady Zheng replied, "Do not think me a shrewish woman who threatens her life over nothing. In more than twenty years as his wife, I have never quarreled with him a single time, never complained once about being poor. In my heart I have comforted myself all along that though he is poor, he is poor with backbone — Heaven would not fail us, and in time surely we would see the day of improvement. Even a few days ago, that doomed Zongkong came to recruit him to go rob Tianlai's silver — and he refused outright, saying, 'Even if I were starving, I would not do this, let alone rob Tianlai's silver. Even if you put a knife to my throat, I would not do it.' When I heard those words, I was so glad. And yet today, for no reason at all, he has changed. If it were not for the memory of my parents-in-law, I would call him to his face a beast without a soul!" An old man present said, "Sister-in-law, do not be so distressed — this cannot be resolved by distress alone. Let me offer a suggestion. Yi Xing has already done wrong, and once a wrong is done, not even a sage can undo it — the only recourse is to admit the error and ask forgiveness. Right now, why not the two of you go together to the Liang family and beg pardon of the mistress? Knowing the Liang mistress's broad-mindedness, once she sees you make your apologies, whatever anger she has will surely be appeased." Lady Zheng asked Yi Xing, "Will you go, following what this old uncle says?"

Yi Xing was by now red with shame to the roots of his hair, hands and feet at a loss; he wished there were a crack in the ground he could slip through. After a long silence he replied, "I will go." Lady Zheng got up, grabbed his pigtail, and made to lead him out; the crowd poured out after them. Lady Zheng asked the old man to keep watch over their door, then set out with Yi Xing. Lady Zheng said, "Since we're going, you will follow my instructions." Yi Xing replied, "What instructions?" Lady Zheng replied, "When we get there, you will kneel before the mistress, and you will not get up. If the mistress scolds you, your face will not redden. Even if she takes a knife and cuts out a piece of your flesh, you will not cry out!" Yi Xing said not a word, only kept walking steadily ahead. Lady Zheng drew her finger across her own cheek and said, "Shameful — truly shameful!" All the way there she muttered under her breath.

Enough of the neighbors' gossip. As Lady Zheng scolded Yi Xing and walked toward the Liang house, she turned out of the street and ran into Guixing's men delivering the rice — five or six of them, carrying loads. When they saw Yi Xing they called out, "Yi Xing, old uncle! Our young master is sending rice for you! Where are you going? Is your door open?" Lady Zheng spat directly in their faces and said, "Who is your 'old uncle'? Save that title for your master! Who wants your prisoner's rations? Take them straight back — tell your master to use them to feed his thugs! Even our pigs and dogs would not eat such tainted rice!" The delivery men, not understanding what they had done wrong, walked away in an ill humor, carrying the loads back.

Lady Zheng and Yi Xing walked straight to the Liang house and knocked. Qifu came out and opened the gate. The two walked in, looked up, and saw Mistress Ling, Tianlai, and all the family gathered in the main hall. Lady Zheng took Yi Xing by the hand, quickened her pace, walked in, and both of them dropped to their knees before Mistress Ling with a thud. Lady Zheng had not yet managed a single word before she burst into loud weeping. Mistress Ling was greatly startled. Tianlai had been struck by Yi Xing and though not gravely hurt, had been frightened. Thinking it over, he realized the man had clearly been Yi Xing, and that Guixing must have put him up to it. He had told his mother so. Just as the family was discussing the matter, Yi Xing and his wife came bursting in, looking utterly desperate. Tianlai was inwardly alarmed: "This is bad — not content with beating me on the road, they've come to beat me at home!" But seeing the couple not say a single word, rushing in and dropping to their knees in tears, he felt as though struck on the head out of nowhere — utterly bewildered as to the reason. He immediately stepped forward to try to raise Yi Xing, but Yi Xing's knees might as well have been nailed to the floor — impossible to move. Mistress Ling tried to raise Lady Zheng, but she too could not be lifted. "Daughters-in-law! Come quickly and help sister-in-law up — I cannot do it!" Liu Shi and Lady Ye came to help, but Lady Zheng only wept and refused to rise; the entire Liang family was left bewildered. Mistress Ling said, "Sister-in-law, please get up — you can speak to us properly." Lady Zheng sobbed for a long while before she stopped, managed with effort to say "Mistress!" — and then wept again. Mistress Ling was deeply anxious; she looked at Yi Xing, who too had tears streaming from his eyes. "Sister-in-law, please tell us what this is about." Lady Zheng sobbed for a long time more and then said, "Mistress! After today, I have no face to look upon you ever again!" Before she had finished speaking, she wept again. Mistress Ling stamped her foot in distress, "Sister-in-law! What can you possibly mean — I do not understand!"

Lady Zheng stopped weeping and then told the whole story from beginning to end: how Yi Xing had been directed by Guixing, how he had beaten Tianlai, how she had quarreled with him at home, how the neighbors had urged reconciliation, and how they had come now specially to beg forgiveness. She also said, "Mistress, I know you must be angry at this, but you are getting on in years — please do not let your anger damage your own health. Beat us, husband and wife, thoroughly, and let that release some of the anger." Mistress Ling said, "What kind of talk is that! Sister-in-law, get up quickly — otherwise I shall kneel down alongside you." Liu Shi came again to support her; only then did Lady Zheng rise. Tianlai then went to help Yi Xing up, but Yi Xing was still stubbornly kneeling and would not move; the tears fell from his eyes like beads off a broken string, endlessly dropping, one after another, and he was barely holding back the sound of weeping. Tianlai, on the contrary, felt deeply sorry for him, and was just about to speak when Lady Zheng said, "Mistress! Though Yi Xing is a distant relation, he is still a little brother from your natal family. Today he has done this graceless thing — it is right that you should correct him!" Mistress Ling replied, "What is the point! Sister-in-law, knowing the wrong is enough."

Lady Zheng replied, "Mistress! I have not come to your home today as a sister-in-law to make a scene and beat my husband — I am correcting him on your behalf." Before the words were fully out, her eye fell on a walking-stick that had been leaning against Mistress Ling's seat. In a swift motion she snatched it away and brought it down with a thwack on Yi Xing's head. She was about to strike a second blow when Liu Shi rushed forward to catch her hand. Mistress Ling, seeing the husband and wife in this state, felt a great pang of emotion; she turned and helped Yi Xing up, but Yi Xing still would not rise and continued weeping without stopping. Lady Zheng said, "Get up — stop making an old sister act indulgent toward you!" Yi Xing finally rose. Lady Zheng went to Tianlai and Liu Shi and made a bow of salute to each, saying, "Young Master! Young Mistress! Please do not let anger sit with you. This is all my fault as a woman for not having counseled him properly, and so it has come to this." Before Tianlai and Liu Shi could reply, Mistress Ling spoke first: "Sister-in-law! Do not prostrate yourself so before them." She led Lady Zheng to a seat and took her hand. Tears began to fall as she said, "Sister-in-law! Your visit today has made me both grieved and glad. What grieves me is that of late, misfortune after misfortune has come our way — all from Guixing — including the ambush on the road, the robbery and the beatings — all directed by Guixing, using people from my own natal Ling family to bully my husband's family. And there is nothing I can do to restrain them. This makes me feel not only that I have failed my late husband, but ashamed before even my own sons..." Tianlai quickly said, "Mother, please do not say such things — you would shame us utterly! All of this is because we ourselves spoke poorly and gave our cousin cause for anger — the fault is entirely ours. How can you blame our cousin? How can Mother say such a thing?" And with that he too shed tears. Mistress Ling replied, "None of this is your fault — I am speaking from my own conscience."

She turned again to Lady Zheng: "Sister-in-law, toward my own sons and daughters-in-law, I have always felt, in regard to these matters, that I had no face to show — though they have been entirely filial and have never uttered a word of complaint, and often come to comfort me. Did you hear what your nephew just said? He even took the blame on himself! But the more they are like that, the harder it is on my heart." She continually wiped her tears. "Sister-in-law, your coming here today — husband and wife together — has restored so much of my dignity!" Lady Zheng replied, "The fact that we never came to beg only favors, that is already enough — what can I say about restoring dignity?" Mistress Ling replied, "Dignity has nothing to do with wealth or poverty — it lies in doing what is right. Do not speak of that, sister-in-law. I am not pleased simply because you came and knelt before me today. What has truly restored my dignity is..." She raised her thumb and said, "To have such a wise and virtuous sister-in-law as you..." Then she shifted her thumb toward Yi Xing and added, "And to have such a brother who has the courage to acknowledge his wrongs — not only has it restored my own face, it has restored dignity to the whole Ling family! No longer can people say there is not a single one of the Ling family who is not a muddle-headed brigand!" With that she broke into laughter — and yet even as she laughed, the tears kept falling; in the end she could not sustain the laugh and broke into weeping, then choked on a breath. Coughing seized her. Liu Shi and Lady Ye came at once, one on each side, patting her back; Chen Shi held up the spittoon; and Guichan brought a towel to attend her. After a fit of coughing Mistress Ling said, "Sister-in-law — see how these poor children are all kept busy on account of these old bones of mine. I am truly sorry." Lady Zheng replied, "This is what shows that the mistress is blessed!"

As they were talking, it was already time for dinner, so the couple were kept to eat. As the table was being arranged, Qifu came hurrying in with an anxious air: "This is bad! Uncle Zongkong..."

He had not yet finished his sentence when Mistress Ling was nearly choked with fright, Tianlai was frightened half out of his seat, Liu Shi and the other three women were thrown into panic, Yi Xing was stunned, and only Lady Zheng blazed with fury: "What has that wretch done now!"

What had that wretch done? Read on to the next chapter.