Carrying a heavy oil-paper parcel and humming a tuneless little song, Li Jin stepped home through moonlight strewn across the ground.
"You dead bastard, why are you only getting back now?"
Madam Li opened the door for him, only to be nearly knocked to the floor by the choking stench of liquor on him. "How much did you drink?"
"Not much, just two jugs of Apricot Blossom Drunk."
Li Jin gave a drunken chuckle and stuffed the oil-paper parcel into his wife's hands. "I packed up some food and wine. Just right for your late-night snack."
Madam Li was especially fond of eating. Weighing the heavy parcel in her hands, she beamed. "What's got you so happy?"
Li Jin entered the room and dropped heavily into a chair. Smugly, he replied, "I hooked a fat fish today and squeezed ten taels of snowflake silver out of him. Gave Old Zhang three taels."
"Really?"
Madam Li was overjoyed. "Where'd this fat fish come from?"
Li Jin was a tax clerk at the county yamen, which counted as a fairly lucrative post. But his superiors were greedy and corrupt, so the scraps that reached his hands were limited.
The local merchants and peddlers were not so easily bullied!
Today, Li Jin had actually squeezed ten taels of snowflake silver out of a fat fish. Even after giving Old Zhang three taels, he had still made a killing.
"An outsider scholar."
Li Jin waved dismissively. "Hurry up and heat some water. I'm going to soak my feet properly and enjoy myself."
"Right away!"
Madam Li happily ran off to the kitchen to heat water.
Li Jin unwrapped the oil-paper parcel on the table, grabbed a slice of braised beef, and stuffed it into his mouth. As he chewed, he pondered how he could