Chinese Literature

and his concubine no longer at his side. Thinking she was in the kitchen clearing up, he called out to her to bring him tea; but though he called several times, there was no answer. He made an effort to get up, but because he was still befuddled he dropped off again.

Just then a bad man happened to come along. Having lost all his money through gambling, this rogue had slunk out at night to steal something, and he came to Liu’s house. Since the concubine had only ' pulled the door to when she went out instead of locking it, the thief was able to open it at a push and slip inside unobserved. When he reached the bedroom, he found the lamp still lit but could see nothing worth taking. As he groped about the bed, however, he saw a man sleeping with his face to the wall and a pile of cash at his feet. He was taking a few strings, when Liu woke up and shouted:

“Hey! You can’t do that! I have just borrowed that cash from my father-in-law to live on! What shall we do if you steal it?”

Without troubling to reply, the thief lunged out at Liu’s face; but Liu dodged the blow and leapt out of bed to grapple with him. When the thief saw how active his opponent was, he fied from the room. Liu would not let him go, however, and followed him to the kitchen where he started shouting to rouse the neighbours. The thief, hard pressed and at a loss what to do, suddenly caught sight of a bright axe lying close at hand. In desperation, he seized the axe and swung it at Liu’s face, felling him to the ground. He followed up with another blow, and so the unhappy man was killed!

“There was no drawing back once you forced my hand,” panted the thief. “It was you who chased me, not I who wanted your life.’ Going back to the bedroom, he took the fifteen str ings of cash, tore up a sheet to wrap them in and paisa quickly off with the money, pulling the door to behind him.

The next morning when the neighbours got up, Liu’s door was still closed and there was not a sound from his room.

“Mr. Liu!” they called. ‘You’ve overslept!” But no one answered. Then they pushed open the door and went in, only to find Liu dead on the ground. His wife had gone home two days previously ; but where was the concubine? There was a great uproar until Old Chu, the neighbour in whose house the young woman had stayed the night before, said: “Yesterday evening the concubine stayed in my house. She told us Mr. Liu had sold her for no reason, so she was going back to her parents; and she asked me to tell Mr. Liu to take her new master there to settle matters with her parents. If we send to fetch her back, we should be able to get to the bottom of this. We must also fetch Mrs. Liu back before we decide on anything.”

“You are right,” they all agreed. F

They first sent a messenger to Mr. Wang’s house to break the bad